Verizon Communications Inc. ( və-RY-zən), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 114.2 million subscribers as of September 30, 2024.

The company was formed in 1984 as Bell Atlantic as a result of the breakup of the Bell System into seven companies, each a Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC), commonly referred to as "Baby Bells." The company was originally headquartered in Philadelphia and operated in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

In 1997, Bell Atlantic expanded into New York and the New England states by merging with fellow Baby Bell NYNEX. While Bell Atlantic was the surviving company, the merged company moved its headquarters from Philadelphia to NYNEX's old headquarters in New York City. In 2000, Bell Atlantic acquired GTE, which operated telecommunications companies across most of the rest of the country not already in Bell Atlantic's footprint. Bell Atlantic, the surviving entity, changed its name to Verizon, a portmanteau of veritas (Latin for "truth") and horizon.

In 2015, Verizon expanded into content ownership by acquiring AOL, and two years later, it acquired Yahoo! Inc. AOL and Yahoo were amalgamated into a new division named Oath Inc., which was rebranded as Verizon Media in January 2019, and was spun off and rebranded to Yahoo! Inc. after its sale to Apollo Global Management.

As of 2016, Verizon is one of three remaining companies with roots in the former Baby Bells. The other two, like Verizon, exist as a result of mergers among fellow former Baby Bell members. SBC Communications bought the Bells' former parent AT&T Corporation and took on the AT&T name, and CenturyLink acquired Qwest (formerly US West) in 2011 and later became Lumen Technologies in 2020.