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December 10, 2007

No resolution at Verizon/FairPoint meeting

A closed-door meeting on Friday between parties concerned with Verizon's proposed sale of its landline business in northern New England to FairPoint Communications failed to reach common ground.

The four-hour meeting, which was held at the Maine Public Utilities Commission offices in Augusta, was an attempt by the two companies to reach a resolution with labor unions, the Office of the Public Advocate and the PUC's staff advocate before the PUC votes on the proposed $2.7 billion sale on Thursday, according to the Portland Press Herald. The meeting's details were kept confidential, but most likely focused on recommendations made by the PUC staff, which released a report in late November that opposed the sale, and OPA, which included a call to reduce the sale price by $600 million to ease FairPoint's debt load, the paper said.

Verizon called the PUC staff's report "arbitrary and capricious" and the call to reduce the purchase price by $600 million "draconian" in rebuttals filed this week with the PUC, according to the Press Herald.

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