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Verizon could soon become the latest tech company to announce a mass layoff. The carrier will cut around 15,000 jobs next week, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The news arrives amid stiff competition for Verizon with it losing 7,000 postpaid customers in the last quarter, while T-Mobile added 1 million and AT&T gained 405,000.
The report also arrives just over a month after Dan Schulman was appointed as the new CEO. The former PayPal CEO had served on Verizon’s board for seven years before taking over as the chief executive in early October.
“Verizon is at a critical juncture,” Schulman said at the time. “We are going to maximize our value propositions, reduce our cost to serve, and optimize our capital allocation to delight our customers, and deliver sustainable long-term growth for our shareholders.”
Verizon had about 100,000 employees in February, and cutting 15,000 would mark the largest job reduction in the company’s history, according to WSJ.
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While most of the job cuts will come through layoffs, others will result from franchising stores. Around 180–200 stores will be franchised, meaning people working there will no longer be on Verizon’s payroll.
With the move, Verizon joins the long list of tech companies trimming down their workforce significantly this year. Intel announced a reduction of 15% of its workforce in July, and Amazon just cut 14,000 jobs last month. While expense management and restructuring have been cited as reasons by Verizon and Intel, Amazon has pinned the blame on employee culture.
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Jibin is a tech news writer based out of Ahmedabad, India. Previously, he served as the editor of iGeeksBlog and is a self-proclaimed tech enthusiast who loves breaking down complex information for a broader audience.
