June 22: AT&T Corp. says it has closed a $2.35 billion purchase of rural licenses from Verizon Wireless after the two rivals won Federal Communications Commission approval for the transaction. The endorsement came more than a year after the deal was announced.

The seller, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group plc, agreed to divest operations in 105 markets as a concession to regulators who approved the company's January 2009 purchase of Alltel Corp. for $28.1 billion. Verizon announced the AT&T deal in May, expecting to close the transaction in the first quarter of this year. - Lou Whiteman

Mar. 29: Reports suggest that U.K. wireless services company Vodafone Group plc is in talks with Verizon Communications Inc. about their Verizon Wireless joint venture. Vodafone and Verizon, of New York, are considering options ranging from a merger, which would create a telecom worth just under $200 billion, to the instigation of dividend payments from the JV, according to the Sunday Telegraph. The sale of Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless to Verizon is also under consideration, the paper said. - Paul Whitfield

Mar. 3: Frontier Communications Corp. receive approval to acquire the Verizon local wireline operations in Oregon from the Oregon Public Utility Commission.

2009

Oct. 9: McAfee Inc. and Verizon Business are teaming up to develop products to secure information passing through the cloud. And what is the cloud? Well, for one, it's the "tech buzzword du jour," according to Olaf de Senerpont Domis, who attempts to demystify cloud computing in the current issue of The Deal magazine.

Aug. 31: Verizon could sell its wirelines serving residential and small business customers in Ohio and 13 other states to Frontier Communications Corp. The sale would affect 4.8 million lines, but will not affect Verizon's wireless services.

July 29: Verizon Wireless and Qualcomm Inc. hope to capture a share of the machine-to-machine wireless communications market through a new joint venture. The 50/50 venture will work to develop smart-service technologies for the healthcare, manufacturing, utilities, distribution and consumer products industries. - Suzanne Stevens

July 27: Verizon Communications Inc. says profit dipped 21% in the second quarter, that it cut 8,000 people last year and that will lay off 8,000 from its wireline business in the third quarter, including employees and contractors. - Baz Hiralal

June 29: Reports that Vodafone Group plc could bid for Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile U.K. unit revive questions about the British carrier's joint venture in the U.S.: Would Vodafone exit its Verizon Wireless partnership with Verizon Communications Inc., and, if so, how much is its stake worth? - Chris Nolter

June 9: Mobile carrier Atlantic Tele-Network Inc. says that it will pay $200 million for Verizon Wireless operations that will push its subscriber base over the 1 million mark. - Chris Nolter

May 13: Verizon Communications Inc. strikes a deal to divest more of its legacy telephone business, selling lines in 14 states to Frontier Communications Corp. for $8.6 billion. Stamford, Conn.-based Frontier said it will buy the assets for $5.3 billion in common stock. Frontier will also assume about $3.3 billion in debt when the deal closes, which is expected to occur within 12 month. - Lou Whiteman

May 11: Though it unveiled a $2.35 billion sale of wireless operations to AT&T Inc. over the weekend, Verizon Wireless continues to shop assets in 26 other markets, a company spokeswoman says. - Chris Nolter

May 9: Verizon Wireless will sell the bulk of the wireless assets it has been shopping to AT&T Inc. for $2.35 billion in cash. The carriers also announced a side deal, in which Verizon Wireless would purchase assets from AT&T. - Chris Nolter

Apr. 27: Verizon Communications Inc. delivers a healthy first-quarter earnings report. The wireless provider reported net income of $3.2 billion, up from $3.05 billion in the same period a year ago, besting Wall Street expectations.- Suzanne Stevens

Apr. 24: Verizon Wireless is asking the Federal Communications Commission for more time to close the sale of mobile phone operations in 105 markets. The joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group plc has been shopping the wireless assets to win regulatory approval for its $28.1 billion purchase of Alltel Corp., which closed in January. - Chris Nolter

Apr. 8: An auction of mobile phone systems by Verizon Wireless is said to have attracted multiple bids. One of the offers came from a group including telecom veteran Everett Dobson and private equity backers, sources familiar with the matter said. Bids were due in late March, and Verizon Wireless is said to be weighing the offers. - Chris Nolter

Mar. 30: Bids for mobile operations that Verizon Wireless is shopping as a concession to regulators are due. - Chris Nolter 

Jan. 9: Verizon Wireless names Steve Cannon, chairman of law firm Constantine Cannon LLP, as a trustee to oversee the auction of the wireless operations in 105 markets. Verizon Wireless also closes the purchase of Alltel Corp. and puts the markets to be divested into a trust. 

2008

Nov. 14: Bids for operations in at least 100 markets that Verizon Wireless are due, according to a source familiar with the matter. - Chris Nolter

Oct. 31: The Department of Justice announces antitrust approval of Verizon Communications Inc.'s $28 billion acquisition of rival telephone service provider Alltel Corp., conditioned on the divestiture of assets in 22 states. - Cecile Kohrs Lindell 

Oct. 24: As it edges toward expected government approval for its acquisition of Alltel Corp., Verizon Wireless has sent out books for divestitures of operations in at least 100 markets, according to people familiar with the process. - Chris Nolter

Oct. 7: Verizon Wireless says it will sell assets in an additional 15 markets in an Tuesday, Oct. 7, letter to Federal Communications Commission Secretary Marlene Dortch. Verizon Wireless now proposes to sell assets in a total of 100 markets.

from Maine regulators.

Oct. 18: The company's board clears a spinoff of the telecom's Yellow Pages unit.

Months ago, rivals AT&T Inc. and Bell South Corp. dealt a heavy blow by announcing their merger which, if approved, will largely marginalize the No.2 telecommunications carrier. On Friday, July 7, Verizon Communications Inc. unveiled plans to distance itself from that game and spin off its directories unit to focus on its wireless division, fiber-optic networks and next-generation video services.

A source has now told the deal that the company is leaning toward a two-step plan to spin out its yellow pages unit, in which it would look to private equity firms for capital and hand over the majority of the unit's stock to Verizon shareholders.

A source told the deal in July that the company was leaning toward a two-step plan to spin out its yellow pages unit, in which it would look to private equity firms for capital and hand over the majority of the unit's stock to Verizon shareholders. Upon announcing plans for the spinoff earlier in July, Verizon said it could sell the unit, which pulled in $3.45 billion in revenue last year. Analysts have pegged the unit to be worth $11 billion after taxes and a sale.

MEASURED RESPONSE

Since the AT&T-Bell South news, dealwatchers have waited to see how the company would craft a response.

• In April, Verizon sold its Latin American assets to América Móvil SA de CV for $3.7 billion.
• The company is also widely considered likely to make a go for Vodafone plc's 45% stake in the companies' wireless venture.
• Also in May, Verizon said it might divest some of its traditional phone lines.

The New York-based telecom heavyweight first announced it would weigh options for the unit, which publishes Web-based, residential and classified directories in December. The news came just months after Verizon won MCI Inc. with $8.4 billion.

ROAMING CHARGES

While the AT&T-Bell South deal lies in regulatory wait, it's the latest big-ticket proposal to come within a shrinking group of players. SBC Communications Inc. paid $16 billion for AT&T Inc. and took the old AT&T Corp. name.

Regulators placed certain restrictions on the companies. The DOJ required the buyers to let rivals lease spare capacity in buildings where their networks overlapped with targets, while the FCC imposed a "net-neutrality" requirement prohibiting merging companies from blocking or interfering with data or voice services that must be carried over big phone companies' networks.

The restrictions will likely prove inconsequential; the buildings covered total about 700 and the net-neutrality requirement is only effective for two years. For more on net-neutrality, see the Dealwatch overview.

HOT PROPERTY

Meanwhile, U.S. buyout shop Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. is ready to pounce on France Telecom SA's PagesJeunes SA for about $4.2 billion.