Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam (pictured) told investors to expect the company to announce a big content deal soon, while confirming talks on the potential acquisition of a cable company were now dead.

In a wide-ranging question and answer session at Goldman Sachs’ annual Communacopia Conference in New York, McAdam said he “would not be surprised” if its next content deal was announced to the markets by the end of the month.

Its drive to expand outside of its core telecoms business stepped up earlier this year, with the consolidation of its acquired AOL and Yahoo! business units into new division Oath during June following the final completion of its Yahoo! deal.

McAdam highlighted Verizon’s continued focus on content assets, but quashed speculation it was set to acquire a large US cable company – saying the company had now “moved on” from discussions in the area in favour of other priorities.

Bandwidth
While major discussions at the event centred on the anticipated expansion of the business into other areas, McAdam took the opportunity to talk-up the company’s spectrum holding and ability to support the increased popularity of unlimited tariffs.

The company’s response to disruptors in the US targeting its customers is frequently centred around highlighting its network quality. It sought to expand its spectrum holding further this year through acquisitions including a $3.1 billion deal for Straight Path, announced in May and still undergoing the regulatory approval process.

“Our network portfolio is great,” McAdam said, adding: “as far as getting into [more] massive purchases, we don’t even really have to participate the next [spectrum] auction.”

McAdam’s reiteration Verizon was well prepared to support 5G, and its wide range of use cases, echoed comments earlier this week at Mobile World Congress Americas from Verizon EVP and group president Ronan Dunne on the importance of the new technology.