TechDirt reports:

In what I see as one of the more delicious ironies of the month, the Verizon Communications CFO, Doreen Toben, basically said that analysts have ‘overvalued’ the company’s wireless subsidiary. Now when was the last time you heard a CxO say their company is worth less than what people think? The comments came after Verizon was courting Vodafone to buy out the latter’s minority stake in VZW. Apparently, analysts and press were bandying about $38-50 billion as the possible price, and so the CFO is trying to cool down the hysteria by assuring the market that 45% of VZW is not worth that much. Just after the AT&T BellSouth merger, when rumors of this buyback were rekindled, I wrote that I don’t see the value for Verizon in buying Vodafone’s 45%, and that the Billions would be better spent on upgrading fiber and other infrastructure. Clearly Verizon disagrees with me in general, but there are limits to what they will pay.

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Sony (SNE - Annual Report) has announced a November 17, 2006 US launch date for the PlayStation 3, which will put the company just one year behind Microsoft (MSFT - Annual Report) with the next-generation game machines. This is actually an incremental negative for Microsoft, as there had been some rumors that PS3 would be delayed beyond the holiday buying season. Microsoft needs all the help they can get, as the Yankee Group does not expect businesses to start upgrading to the Vista operating system until 2008. More »

Light Reading reports on rumors that Verizon is considering an acquisition of Qwest. The supposed rationale is that Verizon routes PacRim calls through Qwest, and would be in too weak a bargaining position for interconnection rights should AT&T make the acquisition instead. It would also give Verizon a big broadband backbone.
We are going to call bull on this one. Verizon would definitely like to make a wireless deal - preferably to buy out Vodafone and own Verizon Wireless outright. If it can’t take out VOD, it would probably take a look at Alltel (AT - Annual Report) once that company spins out its local access lines.  This would allow Verizon to increase its relative ownership and exposure to the wireless unit. It already has broadband backbone through the MCI acquisition and if T plays hardball on interconnect there could be antitrust implications at this point.

None of these arguments preclude an acquisition of Qwest, of course. It is just that we would view such a deal as a sign of weakness on Verizon’s part and it would definitely take away from the name’s appeal.