The pending sale of Verizon phone lines in Washington isn’t expected to result in a high rate of job losses at the company’s regional headquarters in Everett, but Verizon officials said Thursday that specifics of the sale likely won’t be clear for another year.
The telecommunications company announced Wednesday it plans to sell landlines in 14 states to Connecticut-based Frontier Communications for 5.3 billion in stock, pending the approval of state agencies and shareholders.
As part of the deal, Frontier is expected to absorb Verizon’s Washington-based employees and infrastructure, including fiber-optic Internet and television services.
“The employee situation — we don’t have any information on that yet,” spokesman Kevin Laverty said. “We don’t expect changes to be major.”
About 700 employees work out of Verizon’s Everett hub. Some employees may stay on with Verizon; most likely will transition to Frontier, Laverty said.
Verizon serves roughly 518,000 customers in Washington, mostly north of Seattle. The pending sale is in line with the company’s long-term strategy of narrowing its focus on landline service while growing the company’s wireless, broadband and global IP sectors.
Frontier has historically served more rural areas, and will triple in size if shareholders approve the deal.
“This is a truly transformational transaction for Frontier,” the company’s CEO, Maggie Wilderotter, said Wednesday. “With more than 7 million access lines in 27 states, we will be the largest pure rural communications provider of voice, broadband and video service in the U.S.”
The Washington state Utilities and Transportation Commission must approve the sale before it can be finalized.
Frontier also will take over phone lines in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin, along with some services in parts of California.
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