Forum Summary: Verizon Communications,
Inc.
A “Forum” program is being initiated for
shareholders of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) to examine the
relationship of executive compensation incentives to the company’s
achievement of long term enterprise objectives, as a foundation for
considering investor decisions about both capital commitment and voting.
Verizon was selected as a Forum subject
based primarily on its apparent value enhancement opportunity. Since the
company’s stock has not performed as well as that of its rivals in spite
of Verizon’s competitively superior operational performance, it is assumed
that a significant portion of the comparatively lower valuation may be
attributable to investment risk discount associated with widely reported
analyst concerns about the company’s strategies. The Forum’s objective,
based on principles of shared investor and management interests defined in
its recent
“Options Policies” program, is therefore to facilitate an exchange of
information that provides investors with a better understanding of the
enterprise goals on which the company’s key executives, as well-informed
and highly credible decision-makers, have staked their financial and
career success.
The Forum program will start with an
informal “workshop,” inviting Verizon management, shareholders, securities
analysts and other professionals to develop consensus recommendations of
(a) what investors should be considering in their decisions and (b) what
information can reasonably be made available for required research and
analysis. Based on the directions established by the workshop, the Forum
will present relevant information publicly to all participants and provide
opportunities for open exchanges of views at one or more steps. A final
report of the program’s conclusions will include any comments offered by
Verizon management.
The Forum will be open, free of charge, to
all Verizon shareholders, whether institutional or individual, and to any
fiduciaries or professionals concerned with their investment decisions,
including members of the
New York Society of Security Analysts. As stated in the “Conditions
of Participation” which are publicly posted on the
Forum web site, the
Forum will be conducted for the purpose of providing shareholders with
access to information and a free exchange of views on issues relating to
their evaluations of alternatives. Participants are expected to make
independent use of information obtained through the Forum, subject to the
privacy rights of other participants. It is a Forum rule that
participants will not be identified or quoted without their explicit
permission.
This Forum program has been organized with
the support of the
Association of BellTel Retirees Inc., believed to be the world’s
largest such organization with over 110,000 members who are retired
employees of Verizon and its predecessor companies.
June 15, 2007
Forum chairman:
Gary Lutin
Lutin & Company, 575 Madison Avenue, New
York, New York 10022
Telephone: 212-605-0335
Email: gl@shareholderforum.com