Verizon Communications Inc. could soon sell off up to $10 billion in assets to concentrate its efforts on expanding its wireless business, Reuters reported Friday.
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Those businesses are suffering in comparison with more nimble cloud competitors amid heavy price competition.
Verizon bought MCI for approximately $6.8 billion in 2005, and the company picked up Terremark for $1.4 billion back in January of 2011.
Verizon’s enterprise assets may not be easy to separate and any potential buyer would likely have to sign commercial agreements with the company, and Verizon is still mulling ways as to how these assets could best be structured, the report added. The changing times have led many companies to sell or consider selling their assets.
Verizon acquired long-distance telecoms provider MCI a decade ago and created its Verizon Business unit to serve the large corporate customers it gained through that deal, as well as its existing business and government customers.
The move would be a refocus on core business, unloading its data center unit Terremark as well as the former MCI, which provides wireline/Internet for large business customers. The decision was motivated in an attempt to increase the company’s focus on its core activities.
Rival AT&T which had acquired spectrum worth $18.2 billion in the auction is also believed to be arranging the funds through borrowings and asset sale. While Windstream Holdings has completed a sale of its data center business to TierPoint for $575 million.
Computer World adds that Verizon has been shifting its focus lately to mobile services and connected devices on the Internet of Things. It’s still exploring how to structure a sale, and no deal is imminent, the report said. Citigroup Inc is the advisor as it has been suggesting Verizon on possible sale of assets.
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A few of the people told Reuters that earlier this year, CenturyLink Inc., a wireline provider, was in talks with Verizon to acquire a few of the assets.
