Verizon secures California approval for its Frontier deal

After months of regulatory pushback, Verizon finally secured California approval for its $20 billion Frontier acquisition. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) unanimously voted in favor of the deal. Following that ruling, Verizon announced it expects to close the transaction on January 20. New Street Policy Analyst Blair Levin said CPUC’s decision was “imminent” based on an Administrative Law Judge’s filing. While Verizon “may not have gotten 100 percent of what it sought, on the critical issues of deployment, employment and supplier contracts, it appears that Verizon got nearly everything that we thought material,” he said. Initially, the key issue for the CPUC was Verizon’s commitment to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, as that could conflict with California’s own diversity laws.