Verizon’s annual shareholders’ meeting resulted in the re-election of all ten directors and approval of executive pay packages. The shareholders re-elected all the board nominees, including Shellye Archambeau, Roxanne Austin, Mark Bertolini, Vittorio Colao, Caroline Litchfield, Laxman Narasimhan, Clarence Otis, Jr., Daniel Schulman, Carol Tomé, and Hans Vestberg.
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half the engineers in this company are like boxes of rocks,cause they have No idea how bad their fiber infastructure looks like in the manholes,aerial splices etc.all the counts are mis mash of cr-p.verizon motto just get it done as fast as you can.jam as much cr-p in one fiber cable as you can .fios ,hi cap,cell towers,dark fiber etc etc all running in one cable .that is a diagram leading to disater.been like that since fiber started.Oh we wiil let the new techs deal with that.OH there are no new techs. lol this company is f@#$%up.oh forgot and 100% of the managers from 1st line and upper dont know cr-p thats the reality my friend.its really SAD so if the company decdes to play hardball with the union,your managers will not be able to do the work trust me on that.
There was a time when transformation meant upgrading the backbone—not trimming it.
And recalibration? That was for network instruments—not payroll rosters.
These days, those two words have replaced what we once called reengineering and layoffs—with all the sincerity of a press release. In the new order, value is projected, not produced. Decisions are delivered in TED tones. And the only infrastructure being built is metaphorical—constructed in keynote decks and exported to investor day.
The builders are gone. In their place, presenters. Fluent in optics. Trained in hashtags. Unburdened by network roots.
He speaks of reinvention, but can’t read a splice diagram. Touts innovation, yet can’t articulate a single-layer failover protocol. Morale’s down, headcount’s down, and yet somehow the “transformation” narrative keeps trending up.
Eventually, the sector will rediscover what matters. That uptime beats optics. That engineers beat evangelists. That execution beats exposition.
Until then, let them recalibrate.
Some of us still remember where the cables are buried.
—A builder who preferred patches to PowerPoints
There was a time—not long ago—when the people at the helm of Verizon wore suits that meant something. They spoke less, built more. Their boardrooms were filled with engineers and strategists, not brand stylists and LinkedIn prophets.
That was the Iron Era.
Now? We’ve entered the Era of Optics. Leadership fluent in hashtags, allergic to hard decisions. Where networks used to be built underground, they’re now built in slide decks—packaged, polished, and shipped to investor day.
The Builder is gone. In his place stands the Presenter—a man whose exit from his last empire was quiet, sudden, and curiously unexamined, despite whispers of financial fog and geopolitical grease. Yet somehow, he parachuted into one of America’s core infrastructure companies.
He dazzles in Davos but couldn’t explain a fiber splice if you spotted him the tech manual. He speaks of “transformation,” but the only thing transforming is headcount—down. Morale—gone. Accountability—outsourced.
Even wireless—the former engine of growth—is now bloated with middle management, buried in churn, and desperately clinging to pricing tricks and bundling gimmicks. What was once an industry benchmark is now a sluggish utility with a brand crisis.
Yes, every era has its own challenges, markets, and technologies—but the fundamentals don’t change. Execution still matters. Operational grit still matters. Respect for the people who keep the lights on still matters.
We went from FiOS to FOMO.
From strategy to storytelling.
From performance to PowerPoint.
And so, the empire creaks. The network that powered America now stumbles under its own branding. The people who made it work—trimmed. The ones who never touched a circuit? Promoted.
It’s not a telecom anymore.
It’s a content experience narrative with a severance package.
So yes, Verizon is sc--wed.
But not because the market changed.
Because leadership forgot which side of the screen the signal comes from.
Investors should start asking real questions. Employees should stop waiting for vision. And the board? They should ask themselves if they want to go down with the Presenter.
This is just unbelievable. We are not performing well, in debt to our🫏, and the same BOD is elected and probable got more stocks due to their “good work”. In the meantime, TMobile keeps kicking our 🫏, our Customer Service is at rock bottom and the workers that do all the work get a 2% raise. I guess there will be a new power point to showcase our good success! Time to go…
The board got re-elected? Of course they did.
When over 20% of shares are locked up in passive index funds, and those votes default to supporting management, it’s not a democracy. It’s a script.
Let’s talk facts, not feelings:
• Goodwill impairment of $5.8B. That’s not a rounding error. That’s the company quietly writing down failure—again.
• Severance costs of $1.7B. That’s not “streamlining.” That’s headcount math to hit margin targets.
• Adjusted EPS vs GAAP EPS. $4.59 vs $4.14. Pick your fantasy.
• $150B+ in total debt, interest creeping up. Add it all up, and the company’s running on financial duct tape.
• Exec comp remains untouched. In what universe does that performance justify those packages?
This isn’t shareholder capitalism. It’s custodial indexing where no one’s accountable and inertia votes yes.
But here’s the thing: The rot always surfaces. Maybe not through the FCC, but via investors, auditors, or lawsuits when the structure finally tips. The data is public. The gaps are visible.
Some of us left the room years ago—but we didn’t stop watching.
Carry on. But don’t assume silence means consent.
BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street don’t just hold shares—they hold the mute button on accountability. With ~20–25% of institutional ownership across S&P 500 companies and default proxy policies that favor management, they function less as stewards and more as silencers.
Verizon’s stock has underperformed the S&P for years. EPS is stagnant, debt is bloated, and ‘strategic resets’ sound more like quarterly theme parks than plans. Yet the same board gets reappointed like clockwork—because passive capital doesn’t ask questions.
This isn’t investor confidence. It’s portfolio inertia we-ponized.
The FCC? Irrelevant here. They don’t touch capital structure or fiduciary theater. But antitrust attorneys, forensic analysts, and disillusioned insiders are watching.
To the trolls cheerleading this decay: some of us aren’t loud—we’re patient. And we read the proxy statements line by line.
Blackrock, State Street, and Vanguard reelected these fidiots as they control more than 70% of all voting shares. After the FCC kicks them around a little more changes will happen. Until then complain early and often to the FCC and name names!
@aj Although stagnation may seem negative, taking a calm approach may be the better option when the market and the country in general is pure chaos. Taking bold moves at this point, with all of the issues imposed by the current government, may be perceived a foolhardy and could have a bigger negative effect on the company than steering a calm path. The time for change is when the outside pressures minimise, not when no one knows what tomorrow or the next few hours will bring.
We have to have the worst Board in the Fortune 500
@OP
Verizon’s 2025 shareholder meeting concluded with the re-election of the full board and approval of executive compensation — including continued endorsement of CEO Hans Vestberg.
While stability has its virtues, reappointing the same leadership amidst stagnant growth, recurring layoffs, and missed strategic pivots raises critical questions about governance and accountability.
Are shareholders being well-served by a board that continues to reward a vision disconnected from execution? Or is corporate inertia being masked as continuity?
At a time when transformation should mean bold course correction, it seems Verizon is doubling down on cruise control.