Thread regarding Verizon Communications Inc. layoffs

GTE was at ~$65 a share in 2000 at merger time.

GTE shareholders and employees got screwed, no question. They would have been better off had they never merged with Bell Atlantic.

A part of a 1998 Report on the BA/GTE merger by CNN.

Bell Atlantic and GTE employ more than 250,000 people combined. While noting that a "small percentage" of management positions may be eliminated, the companies said they do not expect significant job losses and that employment levels may increase "as the combined enterprise grows

Liars then, liars now.

If memory serves, I believe GTE stock was in the 70s right before the merger.

3kht, though I could be wrong, I never recall the stock being in the $70s after the 1998 stock split. But, by all means, correct me if my memory's faulty.

I have heard complaints similar as yours over the years, and I'm always wondering why those making that claim are ignoring or have forgotten the stock split, which would naturally have halved the value of outstanding shares (the caveat being that you now had twice as many shares).

Anyone with a historical perspective care to chime in here with a yea or nay as to my recall? I don't believe things are as dire, from a historic perspective, as 3kht would like to have one believe.

Back in the day when the company actually cared about customer service stock was in the $70's.

Soaring? Give me a break!

Stock rising? BULL$HIT! FACT: 3 years ago on 26th April 2013 the stock stood @ $53.63. Today it stands @ $50.39. It is NOT rising.

Question when did low Mac take over as ceo?

Customers are NOT the most important part of a company's business, the employees are. When you take care of your employees, they will, in turn, take care of your customers. Richard Branson, bazillionaire owner and ceo of virgin airlines.

Hello low mac? Can you hear what a real ceo is saying now?

1zwr - get a grip! You're part of the problem. You're so dumb to be going on about a 20% raise for a CEO, when your raise was probably enough for a bag of chips. The company needs fools like you to support corporate greed!!

http://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-ceo-larry-fink-letter-to-sp-500-ceos-2016-2?utm_source=feedburner&amp%3Butm_medium=referral&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29

Our CEO got a 20% raise last year and is the highest paid in telecom. So, we must be doing great!

Qyd you're half right. I've had a few interactions with vlss and no curry was involved, but if you combined every person i dealt with they wouldn't add up to a half-wit. I would love to know where all these millions of dollars saved thru vlss projects actually came from... My guess is more creative accounting.

From what I've heard about the VLSS people, change batteries in a flashlight is about as complex as they can get. And most of the time, they do that wrong.

What VLSS is good as is keeping the curry stains on their lips hidden with Tammy Faye make-up products.

VLSS!!!!! hahahahahahahaha!!!!!! What a boondoggle. Without a doubt the largest source of time-wasting ideas and non-productive work generation ever conceived. cwc must be a recent greenbelt. Only those who have hidden out in the program think it's wonderful.

You're obviously not seeing the positives that I am seeing. While your glass may be 1/2 empty, look at the progress unleashed when Lean Six Sigma principles were embraced.

RE:XMX - you're right on target!

The culture is so lame that it will never be an innovative company. If you're a risk-taker and have innovative ideas for your function - you're considered not in alignment with the company. If you don't do it the HQ way - then you're a problem. If the leader didn't come up with the idea, so s/he can get credit - the idea is squashed. The company only wants brown-nosers and those that agree with everything. The culture needs to be more bold - this will never happen because it's too much of a hierarchy. McA$$, Shamoo and most of the c-suite is too old for a modern day company - they are the ones that should be RIF'd!

Lowell is evil, you may be next to get the ax, I would not be whistling Dixie anytime soon. Evil our evil

The problem isn't that the company isn't performing, the problem is leadership that has either no vision or the wrong focus. Or both. As a result, the direction is totally wrong for long-term viability and thus is not an attractive investment vehicle. The constant volume of shorts is a pretty good indicator of what the investing market thinks of your strategy.

Quarterly stock price targets are not the way to run a business. Cost cutting isn't the only way to increase profitability. Answering the wrong questions from the wrong people and trying to become something they will never be is the problem. Ridiculous money is spent on external consultants that kowtow to the check-signers, all while ignoring whatever insights and direction that could be capitalized on from a captured resource (employees).

The absolute void of any compelling products is more than a flag or bell, it's an air raid siren that your current product development and marketing leads need to be shown the door. Speaking of firing people...I guarantee you that if C-level compensation had an adjustment tied to involuntary separation percentages, there'd be more focus on strengthening the network and more effective partnerships on product offerings to increase revenue and margin instead of cutting headcount to reduce salary cost.

If even the most unanswerable profession of tenured university professors have to submit to the scrutiny of student evaluations, then this group of execs should surely be subject to a review by the rank and file workforce. It would certainly be eye-opening.

Leadership is still stuck in a 1980's mentality, competing against 2015 customer needs, ignoring or eliminating their primary assets, and trying to transform into something that, by the time it's accomplished, will be obsolete. All these ill conceived ideas have saddled the company with mounds of debt. Now the company credit worthiness has been downgraded, increasing the inability to take advantage of any emerging opportunities. It's going to be a continual slide into mediocrity until this crop of cufflinks is taken to the pawn shop.

What a load of complete Bullshit...See Verizon has hacks like Lowell that will lie and cook the books until the end. Hey, remember Eron ? Remember MCI Worldcomm ?

It goes up, they make their money and then it goes down.

Keep singing and drinking the kool-aid on your ride to work!

VZ is doing everything to increase value, yet the stock is still low. It's sad that it can't get over $100 share - trending in the $50's is not impressive. If it was solid it wouldn't be cutting staff, it would be hiring and bringing game-changing products to the market, not sheepish stuff like Go90. There's an identity crisis for the brand - customers still see it as a dumb telephone company selling devices. Until this perception changes - it will remain in a limited lane. Enjoy your kool-aid!!

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings -

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains: round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

duv - you are talking out of your a$$. Telecom is a tad more complicated than playing with little toys. Once upon a time a company called AOL and a bunch of CLECs talked the same trash. Where are they now?

2 words: project skybender. Verizon days are numbered I don't care what the stock is doing today.

It is all about the dividend, nothing else. Verizon is the safe-haven when the sky is falling in on Wall St.

Who cares...the stock market is rigged anyways...

More job cuts = more profit. If those in charge knew what they were doing, we would be hiring instead of firing and profiting more as well. I'm guessing that the poster is being facetious.

If you were in the WBG you wouldnt be singing.....

Who's in the money? Just think if they knew what they were doing.