Even with wireless growth, Verizon posts Q4 loss of $653 million

By on Jan 27, 2010 at 9:50 AM
News January 27, 2010

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Yesterday, Verizon Communications, Inc. reported a Q4 loss of $653 million, despite a strong showing from its wireless division. Verizon Wireless has the most retail customers of any U.S. carrier, and added 2.2 million new lines during Q4 — almost all of which were post-paid customers — bringing their total customer base to 91.4 million. Losses are being credited to a shrinking land-line customer base, as users move exclusively to cell phones, which was down 3.9% in Q4. VZ announced it will be laying off an additional 13,000 employees in 2010 in an attempt to tighten its belt and get back into the black. DROID.

[Via New York Times]

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  • doublejizzle

    Jeez, why must people go on and on and not understand these are 2 seperate scenarios. Trust….I know. If you don’t believe, then call Verizon and tell them you are already a VZW customer and they will tell you that it is different companies. I have had both at the same time and I got 2 different bills…one for my wireless and one for my home phone.

    • T

      Actually, that you can do. It’s called onebill… but the charges are still separate. It’s just on one piece of paper, if you will (more like however many pages it takes for your bill… but for the sake of argument…)

    • http://sdx-developers.com Numus

      http://investor.verizon.com/profile/history/
      Or you can read the company history and understand they aren’t seperate companies… That verizon communications, Inc. owns the majority of Verizon Wireless

  • Jason

    Is there a map for that?

  • Blackberry Bold

    Verizon needs focus on customer service little bit more than usual…
    I have 2 business accounts with them, and I cannot remember how many times they have screwed up. I hate them with my heart.

  • Bubba

    I had Verizon’s One-bill. Combining phone and wireless bill was a bad bad idea. That screwed me up big time!

  • JOE Shtekler

    spend less on useless advertisment

  • AT&T

    @Miguel Alvarez -Waaaa! Quit being a little baby bitch. Everbody knows that verizon will be bankrupt soon if the don’t change there communist ways! It sucks that companies like Apple won’t touch them with a 10 foot pole. Trust me, I’m a verizon customer and would love to get and iPhone and such, but the reality is that AT&T is going to keep the iPhone no matter what! So I suggest to you that you switch carriers and stop bitching!!!!

    • Wow-okay>

      Ok, so it’s actually not that apple doesn’t want verizon to have their phones they actually went to verizon wireless first.. if memory serves. Verizon wireless denied it because they wanted the rights to their music aka wanted to get paid for their customers purchasing music/apps. All will turn around by the end of the year, you’ll see.

  • AT&T

    @Mangnious -this goes for you too!!! Waaaa! Quit being a little baby bitch. Everbody knows that verizon will be bankrupt soon if the don’t change there communist ways! It sucks that companies like Apple won’t touch them with a 10 foot pole. Trust me, I’m a verizon customer and would love to get and iPhone and such, but the reality is that AT&T is going to keep the iPhone no matter what! So I suggest to you that you switch carriers and stop bitching!!!!

  • Cool Beans

    I find it hilarious how people are so up in arms because precious Verizon posted a loss. Get over it. Seriously. If this was any other phone company you tools would be all over it.

  • Andrew

    Suck it verizon wooooooo!!!

  • Jarred

    Finally, this Andrwe cat is starting to make sense for once……cockbag

  • http://PagePlusOnline.com BlackBerry Guy

    I wonder how much business they lost to Page Plus.

  • NoFan

    … Verizon Comm did poor…VZW did well….total loss for the Company as a whole…VZ Comm will lay off workers…big did…nothing to do with VZW’s performance…I don’t even like landline…they are the “uh uh” division…as in…you want to get your bill fixed “uh uh” you need to get to customer service after 8 mins of computer prompts “uh uh”, you want want to reach them past 9pm “uh uh”

  • WhizGidget

    So… was that the 1pm EST event that Verizon was having (the “very big day”) or is it something else, because I didn’t see Verizon as the iPad distributor or hear that iPhone is coming to V…

    • YouDontKnowMe

      That 1pm EST event was some idiot messing around. VZW does have a kickoff meeting at the beginning of every year (not quarter). The kickoff meeting is being held 01/29/10. This meeting typically doesn’t make major announcements such as an Apple deal. This meeting discusses last years results and announces this years focus. The person who tipped off BGR obviously doesn’t work for Big Red, or is a moron.

  • mi_canuck

    VZW… Stevie basically showed you today… and gave you the big middle finger!!! LOL!!!

    • TomTpm

      Where is the ad with miss-fit toys? Run that again Verizon….

      What’s the other commerical? iDon’t… LOL

      I think i just heard Steve Jobs and he said “Can you hear me now???”

      HAHAHAHHA

      • YouDontKnowMe

        Yes, let’s just assume that Verizon cares about the iPad. They couldn’t have anything in the works that you don’t know about. I’d still take a chrome based tablet over this piece of %*@! anyday!

  • Webcat

    Despite the fact that it’s been said 100 times on here, why do people still think that Verizon Communication’s profits for the year impact Verizon Wireless’ profits? VZW is NOWHERE near bankruptcy. Hell, Sprint is 100x closer than VZW is. VZW has over 91,000,000 customers…the most of any carrier. They posted yearly profits exceeding $64,000,000,000 last year. They’ll be just fine.

    • Webcat

      Sorry…make that $62.1 billion. The quarterly and annual reports of both companies are easily available online if anyone doesn’t believe me…

      Customers 91.2 Million
      Employees 83,000
      Annual Revenue 2009 $62.1 Billion

      Source:
      http://aboutus.vzw.com/ataglance.html

  • Unsung Hero

    Get the iPhone already Verizon! The answer you are looking 4! IPhone nano q3 2010

    • WhizGidget

      My opinion? iPhone isn’t going to come to Verizon. This new deal with iPad (lame name, preferred iSlate) & AT&T makes me think that they’re going to keep iPhone on AT&T for a long time to come.

  • BigBoy

    The effectiveness of Droid ads and Map for that ads is today’s AT&T numbers.

    They added more wireless subscribers than Verizon, and their churn keeps on a downward trend, while Verizon’s has been on an steady upward trend.

    The power of saturated ad campaigns.

    • alex

      question is what happens when ATT gets their shit together….and it may be sooner than later considering the $30 unlimited data for the iPad……..also with Apple recently defending ATT, obviously there must be something going on with making their network more robust…

      • MicroNix

        Anyone who has dealt with AT&T in the last 30 years knows they will never get it together. They’ve been nothing but excuses from day one.

        AT&T

        1980′s – We’re sorry sir, but your line noise problem (crackle crackle) is normal and nothing wrong is found.

        1990′s – We’re sorry sir, but we only guarantee our phone lines to support 9600 baud modems. We are sorry you are experiencing disconnects with your 14.4k modem but there is nothing we can do.

        2000′s – We’re sorry sir, but despite 2 out of 3 new phones you just purchased when signing up with us dropping calls, we can’t exchange those two for the same one as the third at the price we sold you the third for last week. No sir, that 3rd phone you bought last week is double the price this week. No sir, we’re sorry about your “defective” phones, but there is nothing we can do about the price.

        AT&T is, was and most likely will always be a crap carrier no matter what the “technology”. I use the term technology very loosely when associating it with AT&T.

  • YoY

    Just in case my last post is buried:

    Andrew–

    NO! Retail means not wholesale, not that they went through a Verizon retail store.

    From VZW’s earnings press release: “Verizon Wireless continued to grow its high-quality retail (non-wholesale) customer base. The company added 1.2 million retail net customers in the quarter (almost all postpaid)”

    From:

    http://investor.verizon.com/news/view.aspx?NewsID=1033

    It is the first bullet point under “Wireless Customer Growth and Profitability Continue Strong”.

    Like I said, they only added 1.2 million retail (non-wholesale), of which only a little over 1.1 million were postpaid (the typical VZW plans). The other 1 million are wholesale customers (Page Plus subscribers, etc.)

  • Verizon_Sucks

    That’s because Verizon sucks! How can AT&T post ridiculous growth even with crappy coverage. IT can’t all be die to Luke Wilson! Alos, how can Verizon, who until last month’s unveiling of the Nexus One, had the best Android phone available not make a profit?? Too much money spent taking over Times Square billboards, I guess. Anyway, we have no new Droids, no Apple deal yet, and not too many worldphone options; even Sprint has the Hero. You are living in the past and skating by because you have good coverage. But, clearly, people are sick of it and don’t want to support crappy big red anymore! No surprise you are headquatered in North Jersey, where all the rest of the trash is! Here’s some advice get your crappy company in order!

    • Verizon_Sucks

      Sorry; that’s due to Luke Wilson; we like him and wish him nor his company any harm. :)

    • YoY

      Well, the Droid was a flop for VZW (and this next part should help Andrew with his Motorola earnings report–I’l break all the numbers down for him).

      First, their 4Q mobile device sales were way down. WAAAY down… 22% actually: $1824 from $2350.

      Then, we can look at how many Android devices “shipped”. Notice, they have not necessarily been sold by the respective carrier, but they have been “shipped”. Anyway, that number is 2 million (from their conference call presentation).

      So, wow, 2 million, that doesn’t sound terrible, right? Sure, if it was all in the US. That is worldwide. However, we can see percent sales for different regions.

      North America has 69% of sales. If you take 69% times 2million you get 1.38 Android phones shipped in North America (not just the US, but all of NA). Further, if you realize that the phones sold in NA have higher prices than those sold elsewhere in the world (which they do), then you will realize that taking the % of sales and extrapolating it to Android device shipments should actually overstate the number of Android devices should here.

      Regardless, even using the 1.38 million figure, we have to realize that it included the CLIQ sales in US/Canada. With all the CLIQs between the US and Canada, there could be as low as 1 million and as high as 1.25 million DROIDS shipped in the US.

      With VZW’s $100 million ad budget for the DROID, they spent about $100 a phone to sell it…and more than half of DROID sales were to preexisting customers…YIKES!

      To draw a comparison, AT&T activated over 3 million iPhones the last quarter, of which more than 1 million were new to AT&T.

      • MicroNix

        The Droid was a flop for VZW? Whoa, what planet did you just come from? Pure FUD.

        Let me break it down for you on Q4. AT&T had 900k+ new contracts. Verizon had 1.2 million. You know, the people that make up the bread and butter of the profits and stay on board the most. The rest of AT&T’s big numbers were pay as you go customers.

  • BNiz

    Really??? VZW has an exclusive on the moto DROID. That means that Motorola cannot ship the DROID to non-Verizon entities. That means that anyone purchasing the phone only has the ability to put it on VZW’s network. It isn’t a global device, therefore, unlocking it wouldn’t be beneficial. You look ridiculous throwing around statistics on something you clearly know nothing about. Get a job.

  • http://sdx-developers.com Numus

    Wasen’t comparing it to the stock Miguel.. was proving that verizon wireless IS verizon communications, Inc. NOT an independent company..
    It is like claiming sprint and nextel are independent of each other..

  • T

    Touche… good point. +1 :-)

  • StevenGlansburg

    wow, I’m flattered you pay that much attention to my posts, but I also mentioned that T-mobile did the best there… and they are “lesser” provider..

    I think the reality is that in a big city all the carriers are the same more or less and most of the population lives in bigger cities rather than large chunks of wyoming covered in a red map.

  • http://sdx-developers.com Numus

    It is Verizon Communications, Incorporate who the stock is traded under… So how is Verizon Wireless the parent company then?

  • http://sdx-developers.com Numus

    In that case we agree.. but to further disprove anyone else who attempts to claim verizon wireless is independent of Verizon communication, Inc. filings (which is what this article is all about)
    http://www.verizon.net/newsroom/portals/newsroom.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=newsroom_portal_page__article&_article=2568087

  • http://sdx-developers.com Numus

    Actually with the decline in land line services over the past few years, and with the upcoming 4g wars, that are primarily fixed at replacing home broadband services (mobile phones can hardly utilize 3g speeds currently avalible.. the only application viable for 4g technologies is in broadband computing, both mobile and fixed location) Verizon Wireless is soon poised to be much more then a simple blip on verizon communication’s stock and/or quarterly reports… This decline can be seen with multiple corporations dumping their land line divisions.. Sprint and embarq are now seperate and now embarq merged with centurytel to form centurylink.. you had the cingular/bellsouth split… the land line is becoming extinct it seems

  • Sprinter

    Meaningless? You clearly haven’t read the comments made by others.

    Your comment, however, was stupid… again.

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