diff --git a/src/services/services.ts b/src/services/services.ts
index 83a00d2dea0..e6d4d3c9b37 100644
--- a/src/services/services.ts
+++ b/src/services/services.ts
@@ -4985,10 +4985,17 @@ module ts {
                 }
 
                 if (isPunctuation(tokenKind)) {
-                    // the '=' in a variable declaration is special cased here.
                     if (token) {
+                        if (tokenKind === SyntaxKind.EqualsToken) {
+                            // the '=' in a variable declaration is special cased here.
+                            if (token.parent.kind === SyntaxKind.VariableDeclaration ||
+                                token.parent.kind === SyntaxKind.PropertyDeclaration ||
+                                token.parent.kind === SyntaxKind.Parameter) {
+                                return ClassificationTypeNames.operator;
+                            }
+                        }
+
                         if (token.parent.kind === SyntaxKind.BinaryExpression ||
-                            token.parent.kind === SyntaxKind.VariableDeclaration ||
                             token.parent.kind === SyntaxKind.PrefixUnaryExpression ||
                             token.parent.kind === SyntaxKind.PostfixUnaryExpression ||
                             token.parent.kind === SyntaxKind.ConditionalExpression) {
diff --git a/tests/cases/fourslash/syntacticClassificationsConflictMarkers1.ts b/tests/cases/fourslash/syntacticClassificationsConflictMarkers1.ts
index 15309d1431e..e381856c41e 100644
--- a/tests/cases/fourslash/syntacticClassificationsConflictMarkers1.ts
+++ b/tests/cases/fourslash/syntacticClassificationsConflictMarkers1.ts
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ var c = classification;
 verify.syntacticClassificationsAre(
     c.keyword("class"), c.className("C"), c.punctuation("{"),
     c.comment("<<<<<<< HEAD"),
-    c.text("v"), c.punctuation("="), c.numericLiteral("1"), c.punctuation(";"),
+    c.text("v"), c.operator("="), c.numericLiteral("1"), c.punctuation(";"),
     c.comment("======="),
     c.text("v"), c.punctuation("="), c.numericLiteral("2"), c.punctuation(";"),
     c.comment(">>>>>>> Branch - a"),