Verizon CEO: AOL Potential Partner, Not Acquisition Target

The Street is rife with speculation after Bloomberg reported Monday that Verizon Communications Inc. VZ is in acquisition talks with AOL, Inc. AOL. However, Verizon is strongly refuting those rumors and is specifically clarifying that it is only seeking ‘partnership’ with media companies and not engaging in acquisition discussions with them.

CNBC’s David Faber reported Tuesday on Verizon’s CEO stating it that AOL and other media companies are ‘potential partners,’ not acquisition targets.

“There’s just a little more incremental information on these stories that came out yesterday from Bloomberg about potential acquisition talks between Verizon and AOL […] the stock had been up this morning. We told you earlier about comments that Lowell McAdam [Verizon’s CEO] had made at a dinner last night at a telecommunications conference out in Vegas, echoing many of those comments in a speech that he just made or is actually making in a presentation at that said conference,” Faber said.

Faber played a recording of McAdam as saying, “I think AOL along with lots of other media companies are potential for us to do partnering with on a commercial basis, or whatever, but to say we are having significant acquisition discussions is not accurate.”

Faber added, “My understanding of it having spoken to a number of people is, they are talking to any number of companies. Again the keywords, I think he used are partnership opportunities likely to result in some sort of partnership venture, perhaps AOL being one of amongst of many amongst those.”