Verizon cutting more than 13,000 jobs in move to ‘reorient’ entire company

Verizon is cutting more than 13,000 jobs—about 20% of its management ranks—beginning Thursday as new CEO Dan Schulman says the company must “reorient” and simplify operations to improve customer experience and free up investment capacity. The move, described as part of an aggressive transformation, comes after Verizon reported Q3 2025 results of $4.95 billion in earnings and $33.82 billion in revenue, with prepaid subscriber growth but a net loss of 7,000 postpaid connections; the Wall Street Journal called the cuts the largest in the company’s history. Verizon also plans significant reductions in outsourced labor, has created a $20 million Reskilling and Career Transition Fund for departing employees, and said the action reflects broader cost and competitive pressures facing telecoms; shares were essentially flat on the news.

Analysis

Verizon announced mass job reductions affecting more than 13,000 employees — described internally as about 20% of its management workforce — as CEO Dan Schulman, who took the role last month, said the company must “reorient” and simplify operations to improve customer experience. The company reported Q3 2025 results of $4.95 billion in earnings and $33.82 billion in revenue, with continued prepaid subscriber growth but a net loss of 7,000 postpaid connections; shares were essentially flat on the announcement. Management also plans to significantly reduce outsourced labor and has established a $20 million Reskilling and Career Transition Fund for departing workers.

The stated rationale is that Verizon’s current cost structure limits its ability to invest, so the cuts are positioned as an “aggressive transformation” at a perceived inflection point for the business. Competitive pressure from AT&T, T-Mobile and other market players is explicitly cited, and The Wall Street Journal characterized the 13,000 cuts as the largest-ever round at the company. The sentiment signal is moderately negative overall and strong negative for Verizon specifically, reflecting execution and execution-risk concerns.

Near-term implications include meaningful cost reduction potential that could free capital for customer-facing investments if execution holds, but there is measurable execution risk: removing a large tranche of management and outsourced resources can degrade service or slow initiatives that drive postpaid growth. Investors should expect heightened management scrutiny of postpaid net additions, churn and service KPIs as early readouts of whether savings translate into improved competitiveness rather than operational degradation.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Monitor next two quarters of operating metrics — postpaid net additions, churn, customer-experience KPIs and any commentary on realized cost savings — before materially increasing exposure to Verizon
• Adopt a cautious or neutral stance near-term: consider holding core positions but avoid adding size until management demonstrates stabilization of postpaid trends and visible reinvestment in customer-facing areas
• If shares decline on execution fears, consider disciplined opportunistic buying with a hedge or stop based on customer KPIs, because the restructuring could improve margins if executed cleanly
• Watch management communication for specifics on outsourced-labor reductions, timing of savings and redeployment of capital given the CEO’s mandate to ‘aggressively transform’ the company