Verizon CEO denies plans to buy AOL

Verizon Communications isn’t planning to buy AOL, CEO Lowell McAdam said on Tuesday, shooting down a report from earlier in the week.

“I think AOL along with lots of other media companies are potential for us to do partnering, on a commercial basis or whatever,” he said during the Citi media conference in Las Vegas, according to multiple reports.

{mosads}”But to say that we are having significant acquisition discussions is really not accurate.”

On Monday, Bloomberg reported that the telecommunications giant was interested in a merger or formal business relationship with AOL because of its advertising resources and as a way to get more content and videos to people’s smartphones and tablets. 

While Lowell seemed to shut down talk that Verizon was seriously considering buy the once-omnipresent Web company in the near term, he did leave open the possibility of some type of commercial relationship.

The deal could be attractive to Verizon, which currently provides TV, Internet and phone service to millions of people but does not have TV shows or other programming of its own to market. AOL, which owns The Huffington Post, TechCruch and other valuable media companies and advertising services, could fit the bill.