Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam threw cold water on the idea his company was in talks to acquire AOL, but reiterated the company’s interest in offering a video service, saying it could debut in the second half of this year.
Verizon CEO Says Video Effort to Debut in Second Half, AOL Acquisition Report Inaccurate
“I see us as more of a partner with media companies than a buyer of content.”
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“I think AOL, along with lots of other media companies, are potential for us to do partnering, commercial basis or whatever,” McAdam said at the Citi Media Conference today. “But to say we are having significant acquisition discussions is not accurate.”
Bloomberg reported Monday the two companies had been in discussions around a joint venture or even an acquisition of AOL by Verizon.
“I don’t see us owning a lot of content,” McAdam said. “We will be an aggregator and a distributor for most of that content.”
The CEO didn’t disclose too much in terms of price or what types of video the service might offer, but said it will be a “mobile-first” approach.
“I’ll keep our strategy behind closed Verizon doors for now,” McAdam said.
As for the cell phone business, McAdam said the brutal price competition will moderate as T-Mobile and Sprint spend heavily on their networks and additional spectrum.
“I think that will stabilize over time,” he said. “You see some frankly irrational stuff right now … the laws of competition are going to prevail here.”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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