Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), announced Wednesday that it has combined its domestic U.S. and international wholesale teams into a single $10 billion operating unit, Verizon Global Wholesale.
The new organization combines the former International Partner Services and Verizon Partner Solutions groups.
Mike Millegan, who served as president of VPS since October 2007, will be president of the combined organization. Carl Roberts, who headed up IPS from offices in Europe, still will have that role, but now reports to Millegan.
It is not clear whether the synergies in the combination will result in layoffs in the wholesale group. Verizon announced Tuesday it would be cutting 13,000 positions in its fixed line business.
“Efficiency is always the goal but none of this is being engineered specifically to reduce headcount,” said Jim Smith, director of media relations for Verizon. “It’s to better serve customers and to do so in an integrated rather than stove-piped way.”
The move is a follow-on to bringing the Verizon Telecom and Verizon Business teams together as Verizon Services Operations in early 2009, Smith said. “It was silly to manage the same networks and services from two directions. Linking the wholesale function is an extension of that,” he said.
Verizon has offices in 75 countries on six continents and touches 2,700 cities in 159 countries with its IP network. Its wholesale offering includes a variety of Ethernet options, VoIP services, value-added services and data services.
