Verizon 1Q profit, revenue beat expectations

[April 27, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Verizon Communications Inc. on Monday reported earnings grew 5 percent in the first quarter, boosted by its acquisition of Alltel Corp. and strong demand for for its wireless, Internet and TV services.

Verizon, which is the second-largest telecommunications provider, said that it earned $3.21 billion, or 58 cents per share, compared with $3.05 billion, or 57 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding charges related to its acquisition of Alltel, Verizon earned 63 cents per share -- 4 cents higher than analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected.

Revenue rose almost 12 percent to $26.59 billion. That topped Wall Street's expectations of $26.32 billion in revenue.

Revenue from Verizon Wireless, which is a joint venture with Vodafone Group PLC of Britain, rose 29.6 percent to $15.12 billion.

During the quarter, Verizon Wireless added 1.3 million net customers. Verizon also brought in 13.2 million customers from the acquisition of Alltel, which closed in January. Verizon Wireless ended the period with 86.6 million wireless customers

Wireline revenue, which includes Verizon's local-phone business and the services it sells to corporate and government customers, fell 3.8 percent to $11.57 billion.

The company said it ended the quarter with 8.9 million high-speed Internet customers, up 7.8 percent from last year. Subscribers to its FiOS fiber-optic Internet service rose 55.5 percent to 2.8 million, while FiOS TV service subscribers rose 83.8 percent to 2.2 million.

[Associated Press; By RACHEL METZ]

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