Verizon Sells Stake In Canada's TELUS
The fixed telco, Verizon Communications has sold its US$1.9B, 20.5% stake in TELUS communications, the West Coast incumbent in Canada. TELUS, like Verizon, owns a mobile phone subsidiary, which operates Canada-wide. Verizon says the sale will allow it to "focus more on core business growth opportunities, including wireless and high-speed access." (What do you want to bet that the $1.9B doesn't go into FTTH in Philly!) This follows on the heels of AWE selling its 34% share of Canada's Rogers Wireless, most likely to focus on the Cingular merger. However, this is a bad time to sell Canadian assets, when just about every economist expects the US dollar to slide. With the US balance of trade heavily weighted to the import side, it's just a matter of time before the greenback adjusts, and those Canadian assets rise in value for a US company. I think Verizon should have held the stock a little longer. (Oh, yeah, our legalese: Techdirt does not offer stock advice, don't take this as such. Take stock positions at your own risk.)
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
