By Michelle Chapman, Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Verizon is buying Frontier Communications in a $20 billion deal to strengthen its fiber network.
Verizon Communications Inc. said Thursday that the acquisition will also shore up its foray into artificial intelligence as well as connected smart devices.
Frontier has concentrated heavily on its fiber network capabilities over about four years, investing $4.1 billion upgrading and expanding its fiber network. It now gets more than half of its revenue from fiber products.
The price tag for Frontier, based in Dallas, is sizeable given its 2.2 million fiber subscribers across 25 states. Verizon has approximately 7.4 million Fios connections in nine states and Washington, D.C.
Frontier has 7.2 million fiber locations and has plans to build out an additional 2.8 million fiber locations by the end of 2026.
“The acquisition of Frontier is a strategic fit,” Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg said in a prepared statement. “It will build on Verizon’s two decades of leadership at the forefront of fiber and is an opportunity to become more competitive in more markets throughout the United States, enhancing our ability to deliver premium offerings to millions more customers across a combined fiber network.”
Verizon, based in New York City, will pay $38.50 for each Frontier share. The deal is expected to close in about 18 months. It still needs approval from Frontier shareholders.
Shares of Frontier Communications Parents Inc., which were halted briefly on Wednesday after a report from the Wall Street Journal about the deal sent the stock up nearly 40%, fell 9% before the market opened on Thursday. Verizon’s stock rose slightly.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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