Verizon Communications Inc.
1095 Avenue of the Americas
New York, N.Y. 10036
www.verizon.com Year founded: 1983 Industry: Telecommunications Revenue: n/a Net Income/Loss: n/a Earnings per share: n/a Dividend: n/a Stockholder equity: n/a Auditor: Ernst & Young LLP Stock: VZ Assets: n/a Market capitalization: n/a 52-week high: n/a 52-week low: n/a Chairman and CEO: Ivan G. Seidenberg President: Lawrence T. Babbio Jr. Employees: 203100 Local employees: 16000 Description: Verizon is the nation's largest phone company and the Washington area's dominant carrier. Of all the regional phone companies, it is the closest to re-creating the kind of dominance in local and long-distance phone business once held by AT&T. Developments: Two numbers say much about Verizon's fortunes in 2003. The first is 4.2 million, the number of new long-distance telephone customers. The second is 2.5 million, the number of local-service subscribers it lost. The mixed results are the product of an increasingly competitive landscape in the telecommunications industry, where regional companies, alternative local phone carriers and cable providers continue to raid each other's subscribers. Verizon reported earnings of $3.1 billion last year, down by a quarter. The drop reflected charges of more than $4.2 billion for accounting changes and an employee buyout program. Revenue rose less than 1 percent, to $67.8 billion. The company's wireless service, a joint venture with British phone company Vodafone Group, again posted strong gains, picking up 5 million new customers. It closed the year with 37.5 million mobile customers, the most of any U.S. cell phone provider. To reposition itself, Verizon moved to cut labor costs in 2003. A buyout attracted 25,000 workers, leaving the company with 203,000 employees at the end of the year. Despite fears of a strike, the company renegotiated a five-year labor contract with 79,000 unionized employees.
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