VZ Verizon Communications Inc

By Sarah Krouse 

Verizon Communications Inc. added lucrative phone customers at a healthy clip in the final three months of 2019 as it worked to build out a faster 5G network, but it continued to grapple with its digital-media business.

The largest U.S. mobile carrier by subscribers added 790,000 postpaid phone connections during the period, compared with 653,000 during the same period year earlier. JPMorgan Chase analysts expected the carrier to add about 750,000 such connections.

Postpaid customers are considered lucrative for carriers because those subscribers typically pay up monthly under longer-term contracts and are less likely to switch providers. Verizon's largest rival, AT&T Inc., added 229,000 postpaid phone connections during the period, while T-Mobile US Inc. added one million such connections.

Verizon took a roughly $200 million charge to write-down the value of its media business, which is home to Yahoo and AOL web properties. Revenue within Verizon Media Group was flat year-over-year at about $2.1 billion as it continued to confront declining desktop search revenue.

In late 2018 Verizon took a $4.5 billion accounting charge related to that business and has since tried to focus on e-commerce and Yahoo-branded news, sports and entertainment services.

Shares of Verizon slipped 2% in premarket trading. The stock has advanced about 10% over the past year, lagging behind a broader market rally.

Write to Sarah Krouse at sarah.krouse@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 30, 2020 07:56 ET (12:56 GMT)

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