NYNEX

NYNEX Corporation

Industry	Telecommunication
Fate	Acquired
Successor	Bell Atlantic (now Verizon)
Founded	1984
Defunct	1997
Headquarters	New York, New York, USA
Products	Local Telephone Service, Cellular Telephone Service
Parent	AT&T (1983)

Corporate HQ, 1095 Avenue of Americas

NYNEX Corporation (pronounced /ˈnaɪnɛks/) was a telephone company that served five New England states (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont) as well as most of New York state, except the Rochester area, from 1984 through 1997.

Formed January 1, 1984, as a result of the Bell System Divestiture, NYNEX was a Regional Bell operating company made up of former AT&T subsidiaries New York Telephone Company and New England Telephone. Hence, the name NYNEX stood for New York/New England, with the X representing the unknown future (or "the uneXpected"),^[1] but the X is also widely believed to mean eXchange. Bell Atlantic bought NYNEX on August 14, 1997, in what was, at the time, the second largest merger in American corporate history.^[2][3] The corporate headquarters was moved from Philadelphia to New York City. On June 30, 2000, Bell Atlantic acquired GTE to form Verizon Communications.

NYNEX is now known as Verizon's "Northeast Bureau".^{[citation needed]}

NYNEX also operated cable television and telephone services in the United Kingdom, with offices in Waterlooville (Hampshire), Baguley (Manchester), Shoreham-by-Sea (West Sussex), Leatherhead (Surrey) and Antrim (Northern Ireland). In 1997, the UK assets of NYNEX were merged with the Cable & Wireless subsidiary Mercury Communications and cable operators Vidéotron and Bell Cablemedia, and renamed as Cable & Wireless Communications. Cable & Wireless's cable assets were sold to NTL in 2000. In 2006, NTL merged with telewest and later re-branded on 8 February 2007 as Virgin Media.

Film references

In the 90s film "Hackers", the character known as "Phreak" (Renoly Santiago) refers to himself as "The King of NYNEX"^[4]. Presumably referring to his illegal abilities to manipulate telephone systems in the New York area where the majority of the film is set. As of 2011 the Nynex logo/trademark is still maintained on the sitemap page of Verizon.com.

See also

• Western Electric
• Bell Atlantic
• FairPoint Communications
• Verizon Communications

References

1. ^ NYNEX History on Verizon Web site
2. ^ Bell Atlantic and Nynex Accept $27 Billion Merger; New Telco Rivals AT&T
3. ^ DIAL "M" FOR MERGER
4. ^ Hackers film script.

External links

• Verizon Communications
• The History of Verizon Communications - Investor Relations - Corporate History - Verizon Communications
• Charlie Rose Episode with Raymond W. Smith, Chairman & CEO of Bell Atlantic and Ivan Seidenberg, Chairman & CEO of Nynex
• Bell Operating Companies