Verizon Writes Off $5.8 Billion From Enterprise as Sales Decline

Verizon is writing down the value of its business services division by $5.8 billion, a sign of the company's declining enterprise operations. From a report: The wireless carrier said in a filing Wednesday that the non-cash goodwill impairment charge was due to "secular declines, as well as continuing competitive and macroeconomic pressure." As a result of the impairment, Verizon said the balance of its business unit was $1.7 billion at the end of 2023.

The decline is tied to the telecommunications giant's legacy wireline operations, which provide fixed-line communications services for businesses, through copper or fiber wires. This segment has seen demand drop considerably as its mobile business service has surged. Verizon's wireline business revenue fell 8.1% through the third quarter and is likely to stay muted in 2024, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

This is what happens when you shun PinePhones!

[Narcocide]

Heh-heh. Suckers.

Re:

[NoWayNoShapeNoForm]

Read the linked Bloomberg article again. The /. summary is a bit confusing (typical /.), even for someone that spent years working in that industry.

The write-down is happening in the business unit that runs the legacy Verizon "wireline" ("wires on the poles" Telco) business. The Verizon "wireless" unit is still holding it's own with an interesting mix of "pre-paid" & "post-paid" customers.

The entire "wireline" telecomm business (legacy TELCO) has been losing customers at a steady pace for decades now. T

Re: This is what happens when you shun PinePhones!

[Unpopular Opinions]

There is a little more than that. Many companies now are hosting on cloud instead of on-premises, so no need for humongous pipes to dump traffic inside their own data centers.

Or average pipes, for what is worth, when you are a small business that is still using a carrier stuck on the early 90s and refuses to accept technology. Case in point: IPv6 deployment on wired Verizon has dropped from 25 to 2% by the new year, when cloud providers announce new charges for public IPv4 addresses.

And then there is the re

Too bad so sad

[Slashythenkilly]

Once you start selling data to the government, all sympathy goes out the window.

Same happened 20 years ago with long distance

[schwit1]

Technology changes.
https://www.brookings.edu/arti... [brookings.edu]

Business fails when you choose to end it..

[blahbooboo]

Verizon refuses to maintain existing or install new copper telephone lines. Additionally, Verizon massively raising prices on their POTs and VOIP telephone service (often $80+/month). They've been working hard to exit the non-wireless sector.

Verizon Business is the old Worldcom/UUNET

[kriston]

Verizon Business is actually a company serving customers of the defunct, scandal-scarred, bankrupt company known as Worldcom (and, before that, MCI, MCI Worldcom, and UUNET).

This article is about Verizon Business, a separate entity from Verizon Wireless. The article keeps referring to it as a "wireless carrier" when it's actually referring to Verizon Business.

Verizon Wireless is a separate joint venture between Verizon (nee Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile) and Vodafone.

Re:

[NoWayNoShapeNoForm]

Verizon Wireless WAS a separate joint venture quite some time ago.

Verizon "core" (as insiders called the traditional Verizon world) acquired 100 percent ownership of the venture sometime between 2005 and 2010, if my RAM remembers correctly. And that's when stuff started to change (and not always for the better) internally within Verizon Wireless.

So I think you would call the current Verizon Wireless a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon.

Re:

[NoWayNoShapeNoForm]

I remember Verizon having 3 distinct operating subsidiaries: Wireless, Wireline (traditional TELCO), and Enterprise (former MCI & UUNET).

There may be some blurring of boundaries internally, but they generally follow that structure so that different "operating cultures & rules" along with "business & financial isolation" can be maintained.

Still, there is a general concensus (both inside the company and outside it) that revenue from Wireless operations is critical to sustaining the entire corporat

Shareholder lawsuit in 3..2..1..

[laughingskeptic]

There is no way the book value of this division shifted from $7.5B to $1.7B in one year, which can only mean that they have been carrying an inflated value for this division on the books for years. It will be interesting to see how many attorneys see an opportunity in this. This should catch the SEC's interest too.