A taxing problem

Wall Street expects the announcement of another super-sized LBO. Anyone betting it will be Verizon Information Services, the US phone company’s directories subsidiary, may be disappointed. Verizon wants to raise money to invest in its wireless and cable businesses. And VIS could theoretically fetch up to $18bn, at some 10 times ebitda. Yet there’s a gulf of difference between theory and reality in this case. For starters, Uncle Sam would take a large chunk of the proceeds of a sale. The tax bas...