Verizon

NEW YORK — Verizon Communications Inc. said Wednesday it reached a deal to sell scattered phone service areas outside its main Northeastern and Californian territories for $5.3 billion in stock. The buyer is Frontier Communications Corp., based in Stamford, Conn. The company will triple in size with the deal. The agreement would give Frontier 4.8 million phone lines to residential and small- business customers and 1 million broadband connections. The sale includes all of Verizon’s phone lines in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin, and some assets in border areas of California.



wire reports