Verizon Communications Inc., the No. 1 local phone company, today reported $4.4 billion in third-quarter earnings, more than doubling its earnings from a year ago.
The company attributed $2.3 billion in earnings to non-recurring items, including $1.8 billion in gains from asset and investment sales and nearly $1 billion in tax benefits.
But those gains were partially offset by $465 million in after-tax charges, which the phone giant says includes $185 million in severance costs for workforce reductions, $280 million for merger transition costs, losses related to its investment in Cable & Wireless plc and asset impairments among other items.
Verizon posted growth in its wireless division and a 70 percent jump in net digital subscriber lines from a year ago as well as better than anticipated gains in the long-distance segment.
Verizon Wireless added 1.1 million net retail subscribers, but the loss of 308,000 WorldCom Inc. customers the wireless carrier served partially offset those gains.
Verizon netted 155,000 digital subscriber lines, marking a total of 1.64 million lines.
Verizon also added 804,000 new long-distance customers, growing its total long-distance base to 9.8 million customers. Verizon disclosed that nearly half of its long-distance customers hail from the former Bell Atlantic territory. The phone giant said it has grown its long-distance market share to 30 percent in New York and Massachusetts.
The company also announced exceeding its expectations with sales of more than 250,000 bundled “Veriations” offers combining local service with long distance, wireless and Internet access.
Verizon reiterated annual guidance of 0 percent to 1 percent growth from a year ago and anticipates ending the year with $55 billion to $56 billion in debt. The company has earmarked $12.3 billion to $12.7 billion in annual capital expenditures, revised from $13 billion to $13.5 billion.
