July 26, 2017
Jason Bazinet, an analyst for Citigroup, noted Wednesday that Comcast would be wise to purchase Verizon in a deal that could be worth $215 billion.
“It’s a call Comcast should make … and Verizon should take,” Bazinet wrote in a research note Wednesday, according to The Street.
Bazinet wrote that Comcast would pay an estimated 20 percent premium to Verizon’s share price, which has declined by more than 17 percent this year. The decline poises the deal to value around $215 billion, Bazinet said.
Additionally, the analyst noted that with the growth of fiber networks, the purchase would mean that the expansion of fiber in neighborhoods would only need to be executed once for the hypothetical conglomerate company, not twice.
According to The Street, Bazinet said it could also help Comcast, which has its corporate headquarters in Philadelphia, expand its Internet connectivity outside of homes. Verizon was just recently named the fastest mobile network in the U.S. in a report from RootMetrics. This is Verizon’s eighth consecutive time holding that title.
For Comcast’s stock, Bazinet said the effect would be neutral to positive.
Reports have also shown Verizon open to a deal with Disney or CBS.
The possible Comcast-Verizon union would be not unlike the planned $80 billion AT&T-Time Warner Cable deal, which is still awaiting regulatory approval, CNBC said. CNBC notes that Comcast attempted a deal with Time Warner in 2014 but later pulled out.
