Key Points
- Verizon is readying job cuts that could affect as many as 15,000 workers, according to a report.
- Around 200 retail stores will evolve into franchise operations, which will allow Verizon to cut cull employees from its payroll.
- Verizon is focusing on growth opportunities at a time of increased competition from other wireless providers.
Verizon is moving forward with a plan to issue pink slips to as many as 15,000 workers as the company refocuses its efforts around growth business units, according to numerous reports published on Thursday.
The layoffs will also see Verizon shift as many as 200 retail stores into franchised operations, which will allow the company to cut hundreds of people from its payroll, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The job cuts were strongly implied during Verizon’s third quarter (Q3) earnings report last month, The Desk previously reported.
“To fund our investments in growth, we must significantly cut costs,” Verizon CEO Dan Schulman said in remarks that accompanied the company’s Q3 report last month. “We will reduce our cost to serve, streamline our operating model and be much more capital efficient. Verizon will be a leaner, simpler and more agile business. That frees up resources to invest in growth while maintaining strong margins and cash flow.”
Verizon employs around 100,000 people. If it moves forward with job cuts affecting 15,000 workers, it will account for 15 percent of the company’s global workforce. Most of the job cuts are expected to be made through layoffs, the Wall Street Journal said.
Stock Price
Like other telecom service providers, Verizon has grappled with shifting consumer trends: Customers like its fixed wireless home Internet service and are bundling it with their existing Verizon wireless lines. Other customers are churning out of Verizon and other wireless services to take advantage of new mobile phone offerings from companies like Comcast and Charter, if they prefer land-based broadband Internet instead.
During Q3, Verizon’s postpaid wireless business lost 7,000 more customers than it earned.
