Layoffs, Palm Pre Coming to Verizon
by John Paczkowski
Posted on July 27, 2009 at 7:31 AM PT
This recession is a long way from over if Verizon’s latest earnings are anything to judge by. Reporting second-quarter earnings that were a penny better than the 62 cents per share Wall Street had been expecting, the company said it suffered a nasty 21 percent drop in profit thanks to the econalypse, which is pinching enterprise customers pretty hard these days.
“The current environment is challenging,” CFO John Killian told analysts during an earnings call Monday, noting that the layoffs we’ve read so much about the past year have badly hurt demand for wired and wireless connections, PC laptop cards and other business services. In fact, so challenging is the environment that Verizon (VZ), which has already eliminated 8,000 jobs in the past year, plans to cut another 8,000 in the second half of this year. “Candidly, we are looking at all other areas of expense,” Killian said.
And what of Verizon’s disputed claims that it plans to add Palm’s (PALM) Pre to its lineup in the near future? The company insists they’re true. During this morning’s conference call, company execs confirmed they plan to carry the Pre “early next year.”
