NYNEX Corporation (pronounce Nine-x) was a telephone company which served five New England states (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont) as well as New York. Formed January 1, 1984 as a result of the Bell System Divestiture, NYNEX was a Regional Bell operating company made up of former AT&T subsidiaries New York Telephone Company and New England Telephone. Hence, the name NYNEX stood for New York/New England, with the X representing the unknown future (or "the uneXpected"), according to advertising material , but the X is also widely believed to mean eXchange. Bell Atlantic bought NYNEX on August 14, 1997 in what was, at the time, the second largest merger in American corporate history. The corporate headquarters was moved from Philadelphia to New York City. On June 30, 2000, Bell Atlantic acquired GTE to form Verizon Communications.