Lowell leveraged Verizon so much with debt from crappy purchases that any reduction in revenue will cause severe free cash flow problems which will result in drastic operating expense reductions namely more layoffs since Verizon views its employees as its most expendable asset. Layoffs will happen before the precious dividend gets cut for sure.
True, @Oly6wQT-jkt. They see laying off people as the easiest way to reduce costs, but they do not look further than the next quarter report. Those layoffs will cost them much more in the long run, but they don't care about that as long as dividend stays safe...