UPDATE Verizon Communications Consumer Chief Executive Officer Sowmyanarayan Sampath said he is interested in buying back UScellular’s (NYSE: USM) Los Angeles holdings if the price is right, Bloomberg reported yesterday. UScellular is a partial owner in Verizon’s (NYSE: VZ) Los Angeles market and market analysts have said Verizon wants to reclaim their holdings. Sampath would not speculate on what would constitute a “a fair price.” UScellular refused to comment on Verizon’s speculation.
“I want to buy that back — I’ve been quite open about it,” Sampath told Bloomberg. “But it has to be at a price that makes sense for us.”
In 2016, Telephone and Data Systems Inc., (NYSE: TDS), the parent company of UScellular, took a 5.5 percent ownership interest in the Los Angeles SMSA Limited Partnership managed by Verizon. In an annual report filed in April, TDS said its investment in the Los Angeles market stake produced an income of $65 million for both 2023 and 2022.
“They got in at the right time back in the day,” Sampath said. “For almost 20 years, we have said we are interested in buying it back,” he told Bloomberg. “We’re always open to that. That’s the chunk we like. That’s the piece we like because we’re buying back something we know very well. Buying back the share would allow Verizon to consolidate and “cut one less check” a year to a partial owner,” he said.
Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that both T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) and Verizon were in potential talks for UScellular properties causing a spike in stock prices for both the carrier and its holding company, TDS.
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