By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Verizon is planning to cut about 15,000 jobs as part of the company’s restructuring efforts, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
The layoffs, the largest ever for the wireless carrier and impacting about 15% of its workforce, are set to take place in the next week, the person said.
Verizon shares rose about 1.7% on the news.
The cuts come after the U.S. telecommunications company named former PayPal boss Dan Schulman as its new chief executive officer in early October.
The cuts are aimed at its non-union management ranks and will affect more than 20% of that workforce, the source said. Verizon also plans to transition around 180 corporate-owned retail stores into franchised operations, the source added.
Verizon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Wall Street Journal reported the cuts earlier.
Schulman said last month that Verizon understood it needs aggressive change including “cost transformation, fundamentally restructuring our expense base. … We will be a simpler, leaner and scrappier business.”
Schulman, who has served on Verizon’s board for seven years, has said he does not want to hike prices and seeks to be more customer-focused. “Our financial growth has relied too heavily on price increases, a strategic approach that relies too much on price without subscriber growth is not a sustainable strategy,” he said last month.
Verizon had about 100,000 U.S. employees at the end of 2024, according to its annual report.
Verizon is battling rising competition as subscriber growth slows and cautious consumers are unwilling to buy premium wireless plans.
Verizon has faced mounting pressure from rivals AT&T and T-Mobile US as the U.S. wireless market matures.
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Richard Chang)
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