Verizon — the strategy behind it | Stratrix

Company profile

Industry: Telephone Communications (No Radiotelephone)
Listed: NYSE: VZ
Incorporated: DE
Headquarters: New York, NY
Fiscal year end: Dec 31

Financials

FY2025

Revenue: $138.2B
Net income: $17.6B
Total assets: $404.3B

Verizon — reported revenue, net income and total assets by fiscal year, from SEC filings
Fiscal year	Revenue	Net income	Total assets
FY2025	$138.2B	$17.6B	$404.3B
FY2024	$134.8B	$17.9B	$384.7B
FY2023	$134.0B	$12.1B	$380.3B
FY2022	$136.8B	$21.7B	$379.7B
FY2021	$133.6B	$22.6B	$366.6B
FY2020	$128.3B	$17.8B	$316.5B

Reported fiscal years from SEC filings (10-K) — SEC EDGAR ↗. Stratrix is a strategy publication, not a real-time financial data service.

In depth

Verizon Acquires AOL & Yahoo (2015-2017)

Verizon's $9.4 billion bet on AOL and Yahoo was supposed to create a digital advertising powerhouse to rival Google and Facebook. Instead, the telecom giant assembled two declining internet brands under the ill-fated 'Oath' banner, watched $4.6 billion evaporate in write-downs, and eventually sold the whole operation for roughly $5 billion — proving that buying yesterday's internet leaders cannot build tomorrow's digital empire.

The analyses

The Money Machine · Business Model

Verizon Won the Network 35 Times Running. Then It Tried to Be Google.

Verizon has won J.D. Power's network-quality crown 35 straight times since 2003. So why did it spend ~$8.88B buying AOL and Yahoo, write off $4.6B in 18 months, and sell the wreckage at a ~$4B net loss?

The Money Machine · Business Model

Verizon Sells the Best Network in America. The Receipts Only Half Agree.

Verizon's whole model is a premium price for a premium network. But the independent scorecards say AT&T won overall in 2H 2024 and T-Mobile owns 5G availability at ~92% to Verizon's 64.5%. The premium is real - it's just narrower than the marketing.

The Counterfactual · Decision Forks

Verizon Bought AOL and Yahoo to Beat Google. It Was Dead on Arrival.

Verizon spent roughly $9 billion assembling Oath from AOL and Yahoo, then took a $4.6 billion goodwill writedown within 18 months. The story isn't that the content was tired. It's that the thesis underneath was impossible from day one.

The Repricing · Business Model

Verizon's myPlan Turned Free Perks Into $10 Add-Ons — a Price Increase Wearing a Menu

myPlan was sold as customer empowerment: pick your perks, pay for what you use. But the Disney Bundle and Apple Music that cost $10 each in 2023 had been included free the year before. The 'choice' was a price increase wearing a menu.