Verizon met earnings expectations in the fourth quarter. Verizon Business CEO Tami Erwin joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss.
Video transcription
– Shares of our parent company, Verizon Communications, declined during the session, by about 8/10 percent, and continued the decline we saw yesterday at the back of the company’s earnings report. The wireless subscriber growth falls below the expectations of analysts, certainly a disappointment for investors. But it is somewhat overshadowed by a massive disruption we saw early in the morning on the East Coast, which caused great disruption with so much work from home.
Let’s bring Tami Erwin in. She is the CEO of Verizon Business. Tami, it’s great to talk to you today. I wonder if we can start with the interruptions. So many of us experienced it yesterday because so many of our lives are online now. Definitely not – Verizon is not the only company affected. We also saw Google, Zoom, YouTube, Slack and then Amazon Web Services. What more did we learn? Can you give us more insight into what specifically played?
TAMI ERWIN: Yes. I think we saw two very unique things in the Northeast yesterday. We saw a broad internet issue that weakened services in the Northeast for about an hour. The focus was on recovery. The teams work together across the board to now get under the cause of it. In parallel, we also had a cable, a Fios chopped through a tree that fell on a cable, so two things that ran in parallel. Our focus is always on recovery because we understand the importance of how many people rely on the internet connection. And then we will work the cause to make sure we will avoid it in the future.
ZACK GUZMAN: Tami, can I get an update too? What we got in the earnings report here was kind of this constant pressure for Verizon’s efforts in the 5G space. I know you, in terms of the business side here, have been looking at companies out there and what they plan to do to take advantage of the 5G implementation. What have you heard from people who are looking forward to, perhaps, I think, their recovery will improve what we saw here in 2021? What catches your attention?
TAMI ERWIN: Yes, Zack, thank you. This is a very exciting time for businesses as they look at how they are responding, responding and recovering, and re-imagining their businesses in a 2021 period, coming from COVID, with some of the economic challenges facing businesses? 5G will play a very important role in the way they propose and deliver solutions, operational efficiencies and new revenue.
You know, we just finished a study we did, which was really an important study. Morning Consult worked with us. We spoke to 700 key business decision makers, and 79% said 5G is part of their recovery plan. 50% of users said they expect to put 5G devices in the hands of their users because they understand the power of expansion. And they consider it an important distinction in terms of their recovery plans. I think Verizon is very well positioned. We led the world in our 5G launch of mobility, 5G fixed wireless access, and then of course for business customers 5G mobile edge account, which landed 10 places with AWS last year, and then private mobile edge account with Microsoft and Azure. So these are very powerful solutions that put control in the hands of businesses as they rebuild and repair COVID with technology that is at the heart of what they do.
– Tami, let’s talk about what we saw in your wireless business, because I think that’s what prompted the move we saw in stock yesterday. You have added 3000 subscribers. But it was much lower than Wall Street expected. Today we look at AT&T. Their numbers, significantly higher than expected. How much of their growth has come at the expense of Verizon? And how much do these promotions from AT&T, as well as T-Mobile, cost to make a dent in your business there?
TAMI ERWIN: Yes. When I look at the momentum in our B2B practice and our B2B business, I am very excited about the growth we are experiencing and still seeing. We lead through each of the segments we serve. You may remember it a year and a half ago when we introduced Verizon in a Verizon 2.0 model to serve small business customers, customers of global enterprises, and public sector customers. We did this with the expectation that we would be able to serve them with end-to-end solutions. And the ability to do so has enabled us to deliver strong B2B growth in 2020. And we are very well positioned in 2021.
You know, it is – COVID has affected businesses very differently. In small businesses, we know that they have seen the most direct impact due to COVID. And so it is very important to show up with not only core connections but also security, and communication capability, video and collaboration. How important it is to support them in their recovery. And if you look at the public sector, it’s a segment that we’ve worked very closely with and seen good growth, and we expect continued growth is how we can propose education, something we’re all trying to learn to live with. ? . We played a key role there.
And then, in the global enterprise, there are many enterprises that remind themselves of how they put the power of 5G in the hands of their employees and really change the work environment while we re-imagine the enterprise of the future. And we are well positioned to continue to deliver strong growth in our overall wireless portfolio, and continue to take an industry leader in the segments we serve today.
ZACK GUZMAN: Well, there are some pretty high infrastructure goals planned in the incoming administration here. Interesting to see how 5G can play a role in this, not only for Verizon, but all the other networks as well. But Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business, appreciates that you come here today to talk to us.
TAMI ERWIN: Thank you very much. Be healthy.