Is stock for General Telephone and Electronics any good in 2009?

Answer 1

Aside from the antique nature of having one or more stock certificates from an old company, no, the stock is no longer any good. When the company transitioned from General Telephone and Electronics to GTE Corporation, there would have been a stock swap from the old to the new company. If an individual did not do so within a period of time (typically one-to-two years in the early 1980s), the certificates became worthless.

If; however, you held your stock with a broker (there were no on line brokerages in those days), they would have done the exchange on your behalf and you would likely have received GTE Corporation stock. Moving to today, GTE Corporation merged with Bell Atlantic in 2000 to become Verizon Communications. As a result, you would have received some Verizon Communications stock and some payment for the value of companies spun off from/not kept by the Verizon entity.