Verizon Quarterly Profits Meet Forecasts With New Long-Distance, DSL Customers
NEW YORK -- Verizon Communications Inc., the New York local phone company, said its fourth-quarter revenue and earnings, excluding a variety of items, were in line with earlier forecasts as it added more long-distance and high-speed Internet customers than expected.
Verizon said it continues to expect revenue growth of 4% to 5% for the year ended Dec. 31, 2001, along with earnings of $3 to $3.03 a share. The earnings estimate doesn't include a variety of charges, write-offs and gains -- items that are considered part of continuing operations under generally accepted accounting principles.
Verizon said it ended the year with 7.4 million long-distance customers, more than the 6.9 million it predicted. In its home region, made up of 13 states plus Washington, D.C., Verizon needs permission from regulators to sell long-distance service and has been signing up customers rapidly in the states such as New York where it has gotten the green light. (Wednesday, state regulators in New Jersey approved Verizon's bid to offer long-distance there. The long-distance application still must win the approval of the Federal Communications Commission.)
Verizon reported a solid fourth quarter for its digital subscriber line service, which provides high-speed Internet connections over ordinary phone lines, signing up 225,000 new DSL customers in the fourth quarter to end the year with the anticipated 1.2 million DSL customers.
Verizon Service Is Nearly Restored; Company Plans Rebuilding Efforts (Nov. 30, 2001)
The company's Verizon Wireless joint venture with Britain's Vodafone Group PLC turned in a weaker quarter than analysts expected, signing up 715,000 new customers to end the year with 29.4 million subscribers. Analysts had expected Verizon Wireless to sign up between 900,000 and one million new customers.
Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg said Verizon is now in "no rush" to proceed with the initial public offering of its wireless business that it had hoped to do by midyear. Wireless stocks have been in a slump recently and the company's effort to buy wireless licenses formerly held by NextWave Telecom Inc. have hit a legal roadblock.
The company said capital spending for the year came in as expected at $17 billion to $17.2 billion. It said it realized $1.1 billion in annualized savings from mergers and joint ventures.
Verizon said it is still finalizing figures on anticipated fourth-quarter charges and write-offs.
Verizon shares fell 92 cents to $48.88 in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading Wednesday. |
