Verizon under pressure as core business slows
The largest US wireless carrier’s shares tumble as price cuts and giveaways attract fewer customers than expected
New York — Verizon Communications continues to face a slowdown in its core wireless business, putting more pressure on the phone giant to show progress in its plan to transform into a media and advertising rival to Facebook and Google. The US’s largest wireless carrier sacrificed profit in the fourth quarter by cutting prices and offering giveaways such as free iPhones, but lured fewer customers than expected. The company added 591,000 subscribers, compared with 1.5-million a year earlier and the 744,056 projected by analysts. By comparison, T-Mobile US gained 1.2-million in the period. Shares of Verizon sunk as much as 4.6% to $50 in New York on Tuesday, their biggest intraday drop since August 2015. As challenges mount in the wireless industry, Verizon is turning the business in a new direction. Using go90, its video-streaming business, AOL’s web properties and possibly Yahoo!, the company is hoping to collect enough web users to challenge Alphabet’s Google and Facebook in the mob...
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