By Chelsey Dulaney
Verizon Communications Inc.'s profit edged in above Wall Street
expectations in the second quarter, while its subscriber growth was
again propped up by tablet additions.
Revenue narrowly missed expectations.
The wireless carrier said it added 1.1 mainstream wireless
subscribers in the quarter, coming in above the 1.06 million net
additions analysts at Wells Fargo had expected.
But Verizon leaned heavily on tablets for growth, continuing a
recent trend for the industry, adding a net 852,000 tablets, above
the 850,000 Wells Fargo had projected.
Verizon, the first big telecom company to report its earnings
for the quarter, has faced tougher competition as rivals like
T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. have offered more generous deals
and paid subscribers to switch.
Overall, Verizon posted earnings of $4.23 billion, or $1.04 a
share, up from $4.21 billion, or $1.01 a share a year earlier.
Revenue grew 2.4% to $32.22 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast $1.01 a share in
earnings and $32.5 billion in revenue.
In the latest quarter, Verizon added a net 26,000 FiOS video
subscribers and a net 72,000 FiOS Internet subscribers.
Verizon has been licensing programming aimed primarily at
millennials and younger viewers ahead of the launch of its mobile
video service later this year. Verizon's recent $4.4 billion
acquisition of AOL Inc. was in part to support the advertising
feature of its mobile video service.
Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com
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