|
Forum Summary
Verizon Communications,
Inc.
June 15, 2007
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.
|