Dallas, Texas 01/29/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – Amid a highly competitive and challenging business environment in the telecom sector, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) has time and again proved itself as a value rich company. Quite recent is the company’s outstanding performance in the fourth quarter, which reaffirms the confidence built for the stock.
Earnings in Focus
During the fourth quarter, Verizon reported earnings per share of 66 cents, which is an overall increase of 73.7% from the company’s same quarter EPS in the previous year. The revenues too stood at $31.1 billion, gaining 3.4% above the year ago’s revenue numbers. The strong show by the company was majorly the role of steadily increasing subscribers and improvement in FiOS and wireless services. The company closed the year with a $2.84 earnings and revenues of $120.6 billion, which were up year over year by 26.8% and 4.1% respectively.
Verizon-Intel Deal
Further, in line with its plans to create an ecosystem ideal for diving in the venture of next-Gen video service, Verizon has entered into a deal with Intel Media. Verizon’s earlier acquisitions have always signalled its intention to foray into the video market and with the latest purchase, the company’s shopping bag looks complete. The deal with Intel media will allow Verizon to broadcast videos on both its broadband as well as 4G wireless network service. The company can definitely expect to drive its revenue further up by adding more subscribers through this service.
The acquisition is slated to complete by the end of the first quarter of 2014 and can be termed as one of the smartest deal Verizon could have got. By employing the expertise of Intel’s technology, Verizon has impressively saved on a lot of costs it would have incurred to develop the technology on its own. Additionally, the company is also expected to complete its 45% stake acquisition in Vodafone for $130 billion by February 21.
