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U.S. telco axes 155 staff at mobile video-streaming division Go90.
Verizon on Tuesday reported a 5.6% decline in fourth quarter revenue, and revealed it has axed 155 staff at its Go90 mobile video streaming unit.
Group revenue fell to $32.24 billion (€30.07 billion) from $34.25 billion. Wireline revenues were down 3.1% to $7.81 billion, while wireless revenue fell 1.5% to $23.38 billion. Group earnings per share came in at $0.86, missing analyst expectations of $0.89, according to analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
Retail postpaid net additions at Verizon Wireless fell sharply to 591,000 from 1.52 million a year earlier, while prepaid net customer losses eased to 9,000 from 157,000. The U.S. operator ended 2016 with 114.24 million mobile customers, up from 112.11 million at the end of 2015.
Churn edged up to 1.10% from 0.96%, driven by increased churn among tablet customers, Verizon said. Phone customer churn remained below 0.90% for the seventh consecutive quarter.
On the fixed side, Fios connections edged up to 14.24 million from 13.93 million a year ago, driven by Internet subscriptions, which increased 4.3% year-on-year to 5.65 million.
"In the fourth quarter we expanded our customer base in highly competitive wireless and broadband markets. This capped a year in which we delivered solid results and returned value to shareholders, including $9.3 billion in dividends," said Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, in a statement.
Looking ahead to 2017, Verizon expects full-year revenue to be broadly flat compared to 2016, which saw Verizon generate revenue of $125.98 billion, down 4.3% on 2015. Capex is expected to be in the range of $16.8 billion-$17.5 billion.
Separately on Tuesday, Verizon confirmed reports that it has made 155 staff redundant at its mobile video streaming division, Go90.
Verizon said the various acquisitions it has made in the content market has led to some degree of duplication in resources, requiring "organisational changes impacting 155 employees as we consolidate offices in Los Angeles, San Jose and New York.
"These changes are not indicative to a change in our strategy and we remain committed to rapidly enhancing our existing online video products and delivering new products."
Late on Monday, Yahoo pushed back the expected completion of its sale to Verizon to the second quarter from the first quarter, as it works towards meeting the deal’s closing conditions.
The $4.83 billion deal has been complicated by revelations regarding major cyberattacks suffered by Yahoo before the sale was agreed.
"Regarding the Yahoo acquisition, Verizon continues to work with Yahoo to assess the impact of [the] data breaches," Verizon said on Tuesday.
