Portland Phoenix Reveals Ugly Side of Verizon/FairPoint Merger
Fairpoint-Verizon Deal Depends on Union Workers Not Getting a Raise for Seven Years
november 14, 2007 05:39 pm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact information:
Peter Kadzis
executive editor
Phoenix Media/Communications Group
617.859.3236
pkadzis (at) phx.com
Jeff Inglis
managing editor
Portland Phoenix
207.773.8900 x108
jinglis (at) phx.com
PORTLAND, Maine - This morning, the
Portland Phoenix exclusively reports that the FairPoint-Verizon deal, which would put all of Verizon's northern–New England telecommunications resources in the hands of FairPoint communications company, is based on a series of bad financial assumptions, including that labor unions will accept zero-percent raises for seven years, and that gasoline prices will remain constant until at least the year 2015.
The story, "
No Raises for Seven Years," is based on filings with the Maine Public Utilities Commission, and is available in print and on the Phoenix's website,
www.thePhoenix.com. It addresses the $2.7 billion merger deal between the two publicly-traded communications companies, which is under review by public-utilities regulators in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
The story, by
Portland Phoenix managing editor Jeff Inglis, also reveals that, should the merger proceed, FairPoint's financial plans include:
Spending no more money in 2015 than in 2008 on operating its telephone and internet services in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Reducing shareholder equity by $1.1 billion, 25 percent more than the company has publicly stated elsewhere. The possibility that there will be no money available for FairPoint to pay of about $2 billion in debt. Losing money on the broadband-internet technology the company asserts will be the biggest benefit to its prospective new customers (DSL).