Verizon's stock sinks to 12-year low while Dish's soars after report Amazon is in talks to offer mobile plans for Prime members

Tomi Kilgore

Amazon said there are no plans to add wireless as a Prime benefit 'at this time,' while AT&T and T-Mobile said they weren't in discussions with Amazon

Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. dove toward a 12-year low Friday, after Bloomberg reported that Amazon.com Inc. was in talks with the company and some other wireless carriers about offering services -- possibly for free -- to Prime members.

The report also pushed AT&T Inc.'s stock (T) toward the lowest close in nearly eight months and T-Mobile US Inc.'s shares (TMUS) toward a near one-year low, but sparked the biggest rally in Dish Network Corp.'s stock (DISH) in 22 years.

Citing people familiar with the situation, the Bloomberg report said Amazon has been negotiating with Verizon, T-Mobile and Dish, as well as with AT&T, for the past six to eight weeks, to get the lowest wholesale prices.

That would allow Amazon to offer its Prime subscribers wireless plans for $10 a month, or possibly free, the Bloomberg report said. The plan could take several more months to launch, the report said, and could also be scrapped.

Shares of e-commerce and cloud giant Amazon (AMZN) rose 1.4% in afternoon trading, and were headed for the highest close since Sept. 19, 2022.

Amazon spokesperson Bradley Mattinger told MarketWatch the company is "always exploring adding even more benefits for Prime members, but don't have plans to add wireless at this time."

Still, Verizon's stock (VZ) dropped 3.6%, to pace the Dow Jones Industrial Average's decliners, and to put it on track for the lowest close since Aug. 12, 2011.

T-Mobile's shares tanked 7.6%, toward their lowest close since June 17, 2022, and AT&T's stock slid 3.8%.

T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon shares were three of the top 4 decliners in S&P 500 index's in afternoon trading.

"AT&T is not in discussions with Amazon to resell wireless services," an AT&T spokesperson wrote in an email to MarketWatch.

"Amazon is a great partner to T-Mobile in many areas, and we are always interested in working more closely with our cross-town neighbors in new ways," T-Mobile said in a emailed to MarketWatch. "However, we are not in discussions about inclusion of our wireless in Prime service, and Amazon has told us they have no plans to add wireless service."

Meanwhile, Dish's stock soared 16.2% to pace the S&P 500's gainers, and to put them on course for the best one-day performance since they ran up 16.7% on March 19, 2020.

The rally comes a day after the stock hit an intraday low of $5.91, which was the lowest price traded during regular-session hours since March 15, 1999.

Dish has not responded to a request for comment.

The Bloomberg report comes about a week after The Wall Street Journal reported that Dish was in talks to sell wireless plans for its new mobile phone service through Amazon's website, with details of the new plans announced as soon as June.

--Emily Bary contributed to this report.

-Tomi Kilgore

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06-02-23 1534ET

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