Regaining leadership: A Verizon store in New York. The company has been running an aggressive promotional campaign as it competes with rivals AT&T and T-Mobile US in a saturated market for mobile customers. — Bloomberg
NEW YORK: Verizon Communications Inc reported its biggest gain in mobile phone subscribers since 2019 and announced plans to buy back as much as US$25bil in shares, signalling turnaround efforts under new chief executive officer (CEO) Dan Schulman are starting to bear fruit.
The biggest wireless provider in the United States added 616,000 new subscribers in the fourth quarter, beating analysts’ estimates of 420,500, and it added 372,000 broadband customers.
The share buybacks are planned over the next three years and include at least US$3bil in 2026, Schulman said.
“We were disciplined and we performed well in the market,” Schulman told investors on a call last Friday.
The shares rose 12% to close at US$44.52 last Friday, the biggest gain since October 2008.
This is Schulman’s first full quarterly report since he was appointed to the top job in October and charged with helping Verizon regain its leadership after two consecutive quarters of subscriber losses and lacklustre stock performance.
Schulman, a former CEO of PayPal Holdings Inc, immediately set about cutting some 13,000 jobs and has promised a “leaner, scrappier” business.
The company will “continue to reduce complexity, eliminate structural inefficiencies, divest non-core assets and deploy automation at scale,” Schulman said last Friday.
New York-based Verizon has been running an aggressive promotional campaign as it competes with rivals AT&T Inc and T-Mobile US Inc in a saturated market for mobile customers.
Verizon is currently offering top-tier phones for free with a new line, including the new iPhone 17 Pro, and Internet packages including a free Samsung TV.
It plans to announce a new “value proposition” by the second half of the year that is garnering positive feedback in the market research phase, Schulman said.
“We are now going to play to win, and we will never again be content to be the hunting ground where our competitors take our share and our customers,” Schulman said. “These last 100 days have been full of change, and a renewed sense of excitement about our future.”
The company expects to add 750,000 to one million phone customers this year. Adjusted earnings will be between US$4.90 and US$4.95 a share, it said.
Fourth-quarter operating revenue was US$36.4 bil, compared with estimates of US$36.1bil. Adjusted earnings per share came in at US$1.09, beating Wall Street expectations of US$1.06. — Bloomberg
