High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ, NASDAQ: VZ) (branded as verizon) is a global broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It started in 1983 as Bell Atlantic (based in Philadelphia) with a footprint covering New Jersey to Virginia and emerged as part of the 1984 AT T breakup into seven "Baby Bells." In 1997, Bell Atlantic merged with another Regional Bell Operating Company, NYNEX, based in New York City with a footprint spanning from New York to Maine. The combined company kept the Bell Atlantic name. In 2000, Bell Atlantic acquired former independent phone company GTE, and adopted the name "Verizon" (which rhymes with horizon), a portmanteau of veritas and horizon. The company`s headquarters are located in the Verizon Building at 140 West Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City.