Verizon weighs sale of telephone book branch

The leading telephone company in the U.S., Verizon Communications Inc., is weighing the sale of its telephone book publishing business to focus on wireless service and high-speed Internet connections.

Bloomberg financial news agency, quoting a statement issued late Sunday, said the phone book unit employs 7,300 people and brings in 3.6 bln dollars in annual revenue.

Verizon wants to explore new services such as television delivered through fiber-optic lines and high-speed Web access at a time that traditional telephone use and reliance on printed directories for information is waning.

Nonetheless, business continue to purchase ads and bold face listings that generate revenue from the books, which are free to telephone subscribers. The telephone book business contributed about 5% to 2004 revenues.

Verizon is already in the last phase of closing its 8.44 bln dollar purchase of MCI Inc., which will bolster its business base.

“With the MCI merger expected to close shortly, this is the right time for us to optimize our business mix and unlock value,” chief executive Ivan Seidenberg said in the statement. (dpa)