Verizon Communications Reports Revenue, Earnings and Cash Flow Growth in 1Q 2009

News Release

Sales of Verizon Wireless, FiOS Internet and TV, and Strategic Business Services Show Continued Strength

April 27, 2009

Media Contact:
Peter Thonis [1], 212-395-2355
Bob Varettoni [2], 908-559-6388

 

1Q 2009 HIGHLIGHTS

(Click here for financial tables [3])

Consolidated Results

• 58 cents in EPS and 63 cents in adjusted EPS (non-GAAP), compared with 1Q 2008 EPS of 57 cents and 61 cents, respectively.
• $6.4 billion in cash flows from operations, up $1.0 billion, or 19.1 percent, year over year.
• Capital expenditures totaled $3.7 billion; free cash flow totaled $2.7 billion, up $1.5 billion.

Wireless

• 86.6 million total customers, up 28.8 percent; 84.1 million retail customers, up 29.0 percent; 1.3 million net customer additions, excluding acquisitions and adjustments, almost all retail.
• 29.6 percent increase in total revenues; industry-leading retail postpaid churn, 1.14 percent; data revenues up 56.2 percent; 28.2 percent operating income margin and 46.0 percent EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP).
• Integration of Alltel operations on schedule.

Wireline

• 299,000 net new FiOS TV customers and a record 298,000 net new FiOS Internet customers, for a total of 2.2 million FiOS TV customers and 2.8 million FiOS Internet customers.
• 13.7 percent increase in consumer ARPU.
• 7.5 percent increase in strategic business services revenues.

NEW YORK - Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) today reported that its revenue and earnings continued to grow in the first quarter 2009 and that it continued to generate strong cash flows.  Despite the general economic climate, sales remained strong for wireless, FiOS and strategic business services.

Verizon reported diluted earnings per share (EPS) of 58 cents in the first quarter 2009, up 1.8 percent from 57 cents per share in the first quarter 2008.  On an adjusted basis (non-GAAP), first-quarter 2009 earnings were 63 cents per share, up 3.3 percent from first-quarter 2008 earnings of 61 cents per share.

Verizon's total operating revenues grew 11.6 percent to $26.6 billion, compared with the first quarter 2008, as the company added revenues from its acquisition of Alltel Corporation in early January 2009.  On a pro forma basis (determined by consolidating the operating results of Verizon and the former Alltel as though the acquisition had occurred on Jan. 1, 2008), revenue growth was 3.3 percent.

Cash flows from operations totaled $6.4 billion for the first three months of 2009, up $1.0 billion, or 19.1 percent, over the same period last year.  Capital expenditures totaled $3.7 billion in the first quarter 2009, and free cash flow (cash flows from operations minus capital expenditures) totaled $2.7 billion, up $1.5 billion from the first quarter 2008.

Disciplined Approach in Challenging Environment

"Our business groups executed with excellence in the first quarter," said Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg.  "Our operational and financial discipline produced continued revenue and earnings growth, as well as an expansion of our already strong operating cash flows.  A highlight of the quarter was our successful completion of the Alltel acquisition.  We quickly began integration efforts, and we are aggressively pursuing synergies."

Seidenberg added:  "In this challenging economic environment, we remain focused on delivering value to customers and on returning cash to our shareowners, with an attractive dividend.  Verizon is in a unique position.  We are tapping into new market opportunities in wireless, broadband, video and global enterprise, and we already have the assets and capabilities to sustain our cash flows and grow total shareholder returns."

Wireless Again Delivers on Growth and Profitability Model

Verizon Wireless delivered strong net customer additions and sustained high margins.  In the first quarter 2009:

• Wireless retail (non-wholesale) gross customer additions (excluding customers acquired in the Alltel acquisition) were strong, up 32.5 percent over the prior year.  On a pro forma basis, retail gross customer additions were up 4.3 percent.
• Verizon Wireless had 86.6 million customers at the end of the quarter, an increase of 28.8 percent year over year.  This includes 13.2 million net total customer additions, after conforming adjustments, from the Alltel acquisition.  Verizon Wireless is the largest wireless company in the U.S. in terms of total customers and revenues.
• The company also has the most retail customers of any U.S. wireless company and continued to grow its high-quality base, adding 1.3 million net retail customers (excluding customers acquired in the Alltel acquisition) for a total of 84.1 million retail customers.
• Verizon Wireless had industry-leading retail post-paid churn of 1.14 percent; total churn was an industry-leading 1.47 percent.
• Revenues totaled $15.1 billion, up 29.6 percent year over year and up 9.0 percent on a pro forma basis.  Service revenues were $13.1 billion, up 28.9 percent year over year and up 10.5 percent on a pro forma basis, with continued growing demand for data services.  Data revenue was $3.6 billion in the first quarter 2009, up 56.2 percent, or 36.8 percent on a pro forma basis, from the first quarter 2008.
• Service ARPU (average monthly service revenue per user) decreased 0.3 percent from the similar period a year ago, to $50.74.  Total data ARPU grew by 20.8 percent to $14.16.  On a pro forma basis, service ARPU increased 1.1 percent, and total data ARPU increased 25.2 percent.
• Wireless operating income margin, adjusted for acquisition-related charges and integration costs, was 28.2 percent, up 30 basis points year over year.  Adjusted on the same basis, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margin on service revenues (non-GAAP) was 46.0 percent, an increase of 110 basis points year over year and 60 basis points on a pro forma basis.

Wireline Again Delivers on Growth of FiOS, Strategic Services

Verizon's Wireline segment reported continued strong growth in the number of new customers of fiber-optic-based FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services, and continued increased revenues from enterprise strategic services.  In the first quarter (with prior-period comparisons adjusted to reflect the impact of the spinoff of non-strategic Wireline assets):

• Verizon added 299,000 net new FiOS TV customers.  The company had 2.2 million FiOS TV customers, an increase of 83.8 percent compared with the first quarter 2008.
• FiOS TV sales penetration (sales as a percentage of potential customers) increased to 22.9 percent, compared with 18.7 percent in the first quarter 2008.  FiOS TV service was available for sale to 9.7 million premises by end of the quarter.
• Verizon added a record 298,000 net new FiOS Internet customers.  The company had nearly 2.8 million FiOS Internet customers, an increase of 55.5 percent compared with the first quarter 2008.
• FiOS Internet sales penetration increased to 26.8 percent, compared with 23.0 percent in the first quarter 2008.  FiOS Internet was available for sale to 10.4 million premises by the end of the quarter.
• Broadband and video revenues from consumer customers in wireline mass markets totaled $1.3 billion in the first quarter 2009 - representing year-over-year quarterly growth of 36.3 percent.
• Revenue growth from broadband and video services drove consumer ARPU to $69.97 in the first quarter 2009, a 13.7 percent increase compared with the first quarter 2008.
• Sales of strategic business services - such as IP (Internet protocol), managed services, Ethernet and security solutions - generated $1.5 billion in revenue in the quarter, up 7.5 percent from the first quarter 2008.

Details of Earnings Adjustments

Adjusted earnings in the first quarter 2009 excluded 5 cents per share in special items: 3 cents for acquisition-related charges and 2 cents for merger integration costs, both primarily in connection with the Alltel acquisition.  First-quarter 2008 adjusted earnings excluded 4 cents per share in special items: 3 cents for costs related to the spinoff of wireline access lines and 1 cent in merger integration costs in connection with the acquisition of MCI in 2006.

Additional Highlights

Wireless

• At the end of the first quarter 2009, retail customers (postpaid and prepaid) represented 97 percent of the company's base.
• Verizon Wireless continued to lead the industry in cost efficiency.  Monthly cash expense per customer (non-GAAP) decreased in the first quarter 2009 to $27.38, from $28.05 in the comparable period in 2008.
• In the first quarter, data revenues were nearly 28.0 percent of all service revenues, up from 23.0 percent in the first quarter 2008.
• Verizon Wireless continued to extend the reach of its broadband network, which is the nation's largest and most reliable 3G (third generation) network, now covering approximately 281 million people.
• In February, Verizon Wireless selected Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent as vendors to supply the infrastructure that will enable the company to become the first wireless company to offer commercial LTE-based service in the U.S., starting in 2010.  Field trials are under way.
• In a move that gives consumer and business customers greater value and more control over how they use their plan minutes, the company introduced Friends & Family, which lets customers identify any five or 10 wireless or landline numbers as a calling group.  Minutes used when placing or receiving calls to anyone in the Friends & Family calling group will not count against customers' plan minutes.
• During the quarter, Verizon Wireless customers sent or received an average of 1.4 billion text messages each day, totaling more than 127 billion text messages in the first quarter.  Customers also sent nearly 2.1 billion picture/video messages and completed 48.6 million music and video downloads during the quarter.

Wireline

• Wireline's total first-quarter operating revenues were $11.6 billion, a decline of 3.8 percent compared with the first quarter 2008.  A 0.7 percent increase in mass market revenues was offset by declines in global enterprise, global wholesale and other services.  Wireline total operating expenses were $10.9 billion, a decline of 1.0 percent compared with the first quarter 2008.
• There were 8.9 million total broadband connections in the first quarter, a net increase of 252,000 over the fourth quarter 2008 and 7.8 percent year over year.  This includes a decrease of 46,000 DSL-based Verizon High Speed Internet connections, which was more than offset by the increase in FiOS Internet customers.
• Over the past year, Verizon has added 1 million FiOS TV customers and expanded the availability of FiOS "triple-play" bundles of voice, Internet and TV services by nearly 50 percent.  By the end of the first quarter, FiOS triple-play bundles were available to 9.7 million premises, or about 30 percent of the households in Verizon's wireline network footprint, compared with 6.5 million premises at the end of the first quarter 2008.
• Verizon's FiOS network passed an additional 500,000 premises in the first quarter.  As of the end of the quarter, the FiOS network passed 13.2 million premises.
• Verizon Business, which serves large-business and government customers worldwide, continued its global managed security leadership, introducing a new portfolio of converged solutions that address security and performance challenges; the extension of its suite of in-the-cloud Denial of Service (DOS) Defense services; and a new Risk-Correlation service that helps prioritize current and emerging security threats within an enterprise.
• Verizon continued to deliver on the promise of voice over IP (VoIP) and unified communications and collaboration, unveiling a new managed service enabling corporate users worldwide to more simply control their unified communications; the ability for organizations to immediately initiate conference calls from some of the most popular instant messaging applications; and enhancements to its VoIP portfolio for European customers.
• Verizon pushed further into key global markets while increasing the resiliency and reliability of its global IP network, including receiving approval from the government of India to operate two international gateways in Mumbai and Chennai; a cooperative agreement with Telekom Malaysia Berhad to jointly develop a new Malaysian IP node and a new Internet node in Cyberjaya; and deployment of a technologically advanced "mesh architecture" network configuration in Singapore, one of the largest financial centers in Southeast Asia.
• New agreements with multinational customers included The Agfa-Gevaert Group and Cigna Life Insurance, SA.  Verizon Business also signed new contracts with several U.S. government agencies, including a prime contract under the U.S. General Service Administration's (GSA) Alliant program and the Defense Information Systems Network Transmission Services - Pacific II (DTS-P II) contract award by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).  The company also continued to generate sales under GSA's Networx program.

Notes:  Comparisons are year over year unless otherwise noted.  See the accompanying schedules and www.verizon.com/investor [4]  for reconciliations to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for non-GAAP financial measures cited in this news release.  Reclassifications of prior-period amounts have been made, where appropriate, to reflect comparable operating results for the spinoff of the Wireline segment's non-strategic local exchange and related business assets in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont in the first quarter of 2008.  Unless stated otherwise, segment results shown are adjusted for special items.

Beginning in 2009, Verizon changed the manner in which its Wireline segment reports operating revenues to align management and product offerings to the continued evolution of the wireline business.  Accordingly, there are four marketing units within the Wireline segment:  Mass Markets, Global Enterprise, Global Wholesale and Other.  Mass Markets includes consumer and small business revenues; Global Enterprise includes all retail revenue from enterprise customers, both domestic and international; Global Wholesale includes all wholesale revenues, both domestic and international; and Other primarily includes operator services, payphone services and revenues from the former MCI mass markets customer base.

Also starting in 2009, Verizon's financial statements were adjusted for the adoption of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 160, Noncontrolling Interests in Consolidated Financial Statements - an amendment of Accounting Research Bulletin (ARB) No. 51, which requires that net income be reported on a consolidated basis and then attributed to controlling and noncontrolling interests.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 86 million customers nationwide.  Verizon's Wireline operations provide converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network.  Wireline also includes Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world.  A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 237,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of more than $97 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com [5].

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