Amid a price war with the competition in an over saturated phone market, Verizon Communications Inc tallied far fewer wireless subscribers than expected in the 3rd quarter. The company hopes to draw out new revenue from its fledgling digital advertising and media business.
The company said on Thursday total operating revenue fell 6.7 percent to $30.94 billion, from $33.16 billion. Analysts had anticipated revenue in the quarter of $31.14 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Verizon’s shares were down 2.6 percent at $49.07 in premarket trading. Share prices have surged about 9 percent this year so far.
It said it added a net 442,000 retail postpaid subscribers, those who pay their bills on a monthly basis. This number falls
Smaller rivals such as Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US Inc have launched aggressive promotions to convert Verizon’s subscriber base.
As the company staves off competition in a ripening wireless market, it has picked up AOL and plans to buy Yahoo. Moreover, their attempts for a set of digital web properties and ad technology tools that will help it compete with internet giants Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc.
Verizon may ‘call off’ Yahoo acquisition
Since the Yahoo data breach concerning 500 million email accounts was reported in September, investors have pondered how Verizon will proceed. Verizon’s general counsel has said the incident may signify a material event that could allow Verizon to call off the deal.
The company netted $1.01 per share excluding items, outdoing the average analyst estimate of 99 cents per share.
Churn, or customer defections, among postpaid wireless retail customers improved to 1.04 percent of total wireless subscribers, in relation with the average estimate of 0.99 percent, according to FactSet.
See Related News: Yahoo’s Sudden Revenue Increase Places Merger with Verizon Under Hazy Cloud
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