Verizon stock takes hit on $50 billion lawsuit

[Danascot]

http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/15/news/companies/verizon/index.htm

The suit, filed Friday by two New Jersey lawyers on behalf of all Verizon subscribers, contends the phone records collection - first reported by USA Today on Thursday - violates the Constitutional right to privacy and federal law.

"The Telecommunications Act of 1934 is as clear as clear can be," plaintiff Carl Mayer said. "You can't turn over the records of your customers and if you do so it's $1,000 per violation. The Constitution is very clear. The Supreme Court has consistently held that the Fourth Amendment prevents unlawful searches and seizures which we believe this to be."

At $1,000 for each of Verizon's 50 million customers, the company and government could be made to pay $50 billion dollars in a class action suit, Mayer said. Verizon Communications said Friday that it could not confirm or deny whether it has provided phone records to the National Security Agency, but the company insisted it protects customer privacy and would never participate in a government "fishing expedition."

[Acadia Blue]

1. Good. I hope they lose subscribers.

[MountainLaurel]

6. They'll be losing us in a week

Once our cable modem arrives. We'll be using cable internet and losing the land line in favor of cell only (Working Assets). This is after dropping them a few months ago for long distance because of their financial support for Tom Delay.

[cliss]

16. Same here.

I just called Verizon and asked the CS Rep why she betrayed me. Why did she turn over my phone call records?

She read a statement by Verizon, basically saying they won't comment because it's national security.

I said, "OK, I'm switching to QWest".

"Good Bye"

[wicket]

23. We're dropping them too- switching to Vonage

n/t

[henslee]

28. Read the fine print of that vonage contract.... they reserve the right

to share eavedrop and share information with authorities as they seem fit. Not that you wicket would ever do anything wrong but its the principle.

[Emillereid]

41. How reliable is vonnage?

[Itchinjim]

7. They lost my wife and me last Friday.

We switched over to Nextel.

[primavera]

17. Same here - n/t

[Trish1168]

36. Lost me the day after the story broke!

[ProfessorPlum]

2. Ouch.

That's gonna leave a mark. Good for them!

[wtmusic]

3. *smackdown*

Welcome to law and order, Verizon. Payback's a bitch.

[BlueEyedSon]

4. Money talks, it's the only language the fascists understand.

[arwalden]

5. Who Does Verizon Pay The Fine To? Their Customers?

Or is it just a fine that gets paid to the courts?

[jayctravis]

10. Often class-actions get settled with services...

I have an email in my box about a Netflix class action settlement that offers two temporary upgrade options as recompense for the settlement, which waives your right to bring a seperate lawsuit, or you can opt out of it, I guess if you wanted to sue yourself.

Likely if it all goes down and Verizon loses, they'll either offer a period of free service to anyone involved, or perhaps a credit on the bill.

[arwalden]

11. I'd Prefer Cash.

Oh well. :hi:

[rmgarrette64]

8. Good time to buy Verizon stock

Seriously, lawsuit dips like this are usually a good time to buy. The lawsuit will drag on, and the company will monetize the debt, and the stock will recover. Happens pretty much every time. If you buy during the panic phase, you can make a good bit of cash off of it.

R. Garrett

[Mandate My Ass]

13. Good idea. Invest $$ in the people who sold us out!!!

Fattening up their already bloated profits, that'll show 'em. LOL.

[peaches2003]

15. In other words

you are willing to sell out your principles (that Verizon broke the law by cooperating with NSA and Herr Bush and gave the govt. your right to privacy in communications) for the potential of making a profit? You must be a Republican.

[rmgarrette64]

40. Well, no, but...

My husband is Republican, and perhaps I pick some of this up from him ;-)

Anyway, I'm going to elaborate in two ways. First, I have no problem trying to make a profit from a situation like this. Far from enriching Verizon, I'd be enriching myself at their expense. Their stock is dropping due to panic selling, reducing their liquidity. They need to make an effort to build it back up - something I believe they can and will do. That expense and effort on their part is a benefit to me. So be it.

That said, I'll get to the second point. I have not bought their stock, nor do I intend to. I did a bit of research, and they've been underperforming the market this year, especially since about February. The drop over the last two days is notable, and will likely correct, but it won't bring their basic fundamentals up. In short, I don't think this is a good buy, even with their current troubles (and yes, I think when a big company is having troubles is often one of the best times to buy.) No principle involved, I'm afraid, just that I don't think it'll make me money.

R. Garrett

[rodeodance]

34. no, they let the American people down.

[Skittles]

49. um

you sound like a republican....who gives a shit if the Constitution is being used as toilet paper as long as one can make money? :puke:

[Ian David]

9. "You owe me a thousand bucks. Can you hear me NOW!?!?!" n/t

[lonecentrist]

12. So we all get a check for $20

And the lawyers get 500 million. Where is the justice in that?

[Ian David]

14. You can waive the right to the class action and sue on your own n/t

[Theres-a]

24. LOL

Indeed.

[starchimes]

18. As much as people would like to bitch about Verizon, they employ

alot of hard working people that had no say or probably didn't know they were turning over the records. My brother works for Verizon laying fiberoptic cable. I'm sure he had no clue this was going on. You know if they start losing money, those will be the people that lose their jobs. Not the fat cats that let this happen.

[GodlessBiker]

19. You're catching on. Regular folks always lose out when bosses screw up.

[Tarheel_Dem]

21. as much as i empathize with your sentiment.....

how do i register the outrage that i feel with a corporate giant like verizon, unless you hit them where it hurts? and since we know that money is the only language they understand, what are the other reasonable options? i'm sorry, they've lost my trust & my business.

[wtmusic]

32. I'm sure your brother is a fine person

he works for a company that illegally violated the privacy of millions.

If I were him I'd look for another job anyway.

[katty]

20. great-happy for them

[savemefromdumbya]

22. when do I get the $1000? this was Verizon's reply.......

Verizon's reply

Thank you for contacting the Verizon eCenter. My name is ......, and I will be handling your request today. This message is in response to your email dated May 12, 2006. You inquired about the NSA news article. I will be happy to assist you. We appreciate that the USA Today article and other reports about the possibility that the NSA is able to analyze local call data records is causing concern. Please be assured that Verizon places the highest value on protecting the privacy of our customers. Anything to do with the NSA is of course highly classified, so we can not comment on whether or not the news article causing concern is even accurate. But we can say that, to the extent that we cooperate with government authorities, we are confident that we are complying with all applicable statutes. We appreciate the continuing opportunity to provide you with service. It has been my goal to resolve your reason for contacting us. I hope I have succeeded in meeting that goal. If you have additional questions or if we may be of assistance to you in the future, please let us know. We look forward to serving you. Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business. Sincerely,

[Roy]

26. I am very impressed with this reply....

I have never seen such an articulate non-answer and line od BS.

[peaches2003]

30. Verizon also denying the whole thing!

Just on CNN. Verizon issued the same statement today as Bell South- 'the government never asked for phone records'. Me thinks they are both parsing words and not giving a 100% truthful account of what has gone on. Bastards. It took them 6 days to destroy all records evidently!

[wtmusic]

33. It took them 6 days to realize how many people were going to bail on them

[rumpel]

25. They control my area.

The only thing I can do is minimize their services agreement.

All these companies control certain areas that they have agreed upon among themselves. Unless Congress changes policies of letting any industry grow by merging and consolidating each other, we will end up with 2 phone companies, 2 cable companies, 2 banks, 2 TV stations.........operating under 200 different names in name only, and owning each others' shares anyway, oops
or are we there already?

[Kenergy]

27. Notice that Bellsouth issued an immediate statement today

denying they provided anything to the fascists LOL!
They're LIARS but I think they realized they screwed up, and they're CTA.
Idiots.

[rumpel]

29. btw. I am opting out of the classaction settlement for their e-mail

blunder:

http://www.emailblockingsettlement.com/

WELCOME TO THE WEBSITE FOR THE VERIZON EMAIL BLOCKING CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT


A proposed settlement has been reached in two class action proceedings alleging that, beginning in October 2004, Verizon blocked legitimate incoming emails to certain Verizon.net subscribers.

The Class is defined as:

All business and residential customers of Verizon FiOS, DSL, and dial-up Internet services in the United States at any time from October 1, 2004 to May 31, 2005, who had use of one or more email accounts on the Verizon.net email platform.

You may be a member of the Class whose rights are affected by this lawsuit.

[ananda]

31. I use t-mobile..

Is T-Mobile a bad company, too?

I really loathe AT&T but I'm stuck with SBC/ATT
for my local landline service. They suck but
they're the only game in town.

Why can't these monopolies be broken up?
The same with cable companies.

Sue

[BrightKnight]

35. Apparently T-Mobile did not participate

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/05/t-mobile-says-they-did-not-participate.html

"T-Mobile has not provided any such access to communications or customer records."

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2006/05/11/wireless-nsa-voip_cx_df_0511security.html

[Kurovski]

37. If there is such as thing as "free markets", Verizon and every other

company pulling crap like this on us will be gone.

[Maven]

38. Everytime the people involved in this say, "We absolutely did NOT do X"

The first thing I think is, they did X. And Y. And Z. And delta, lambda, and pi.

They should quit protesting while they're ahead.

[DaveColorado]

39. I've been using verizon for over a year now for cell service

Who can I switch to that didn't sell us out?

Which service provider didn't sell us out? I'll support them.

I just don't feel like I want to give another penny to verizon.

[Maven]

46. Apparently T-Mobile is in the clear.

I'm with Cingular, which apparently is not. :argh:

[primavera]

47. Try Working Assets

I think they piggyback on Sprint's network, so you can get them anywhere you can get Sprint, but they give a portion of all of their proceeds to progressive causes, they donate heavily to Democratic political candidates, they weren't involved in the NSA thing, and indeed are circulating a petition on their progresive activism page calling on Congress to investigate and take action. You might give them a try, I've had them ever since it came out that Verizon was giving heavily to Tom Delay and have been very pleased.

[Emillereid]

42. Isn't there a penalty for breaking a contract with them?

[Emillereid]

43. How much does it cost to get out of a contract with them???

People should consider using Working Assets.

[bagrman]

45. $175 duckins.

[Emillereid]

48. Thanks.

[NeoConsSuck]

44. Goodbye Verizon!

Hello Vonage! :hi:

In truth, I was contemplating the switch before this. This just put it over the top.