Verizon
Headquarters: 140 West St.
New York, NY 10036
Employees: 223,000
CEO: Ivan Seidenberg
Website: http://www.verizon.com
Stock Symbol: VZ
Career Page
Verizon is the nation's largest telecommunications company. It provides local and long distance service. high-speed Internet access and TV service primarily in the mid-Atlantic and northeastern U.S.
Verizon offers wired phone service, fiber-optic and DSL broadband Internet access. The company has 35.2 million wired access lines. Verizon had 9.2 million broadband customers at the end of 2009.
The company is rolling out delivery of high-speed fiber optic lines to cities in its service area. The service is called FiOS and offers superfast connections to the Internet along with TV service. The company said it had over 3.4 million FiOS Internet customers at the end of 2009 and 2.9 million FIOS TV customers.
Verizon Wireless offers cellular phone and data services to 91.2 milion customers nationwide. Verizon Wireless is a joint operation between Verizon and U.K.'s Vodafone company.
In 2009, Verizon had revenues of $107.8 billion, a 10.7% increase. Net income was $10.3 billion. The company said it will cut 13,000 jobs from its workforce this year due to decline in wireline customers.
The company said it spent $23 billion in annual compensation and benefits in 2008. More than $3.6 billion was spent annually for health-care coverage for more than 800,000 employees, retirees and family members.
36 percent of Verizon's employees are minorities and 38% are represented by unions.
History
Verizon was formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE in July 1998. The Verizon name comes from veritas, the Latin word connoting certainty and reliability, and horizon, signifying forward-looking and visionary.
In 2005, Verizon acquired MCI, formerly known as Worldcom.
The company spun off Verizon Directories in 2006, the second-largest publisher of phone directories in the nation. This includes the SuperPages.com directory and now trades independently on the NYSE as Idearc Inc.
Benefits
Verizon offers medical, dental, vision, life insurance and reimbursement accounts. We also have a number of work/life benefits such as an Employee Assistance Program, Dependent Life Insurance, Adoption Assistance, and in some locations, Day Care Assistance. We have a generous time off plan including vacation, personal days, and holidays.
Tuition assistance is also provided. Employees are encouraged to expand their professional qualifications by attending training classes, seminars, and conferences.
Verizon also offers retirement benefits, including a 401(k) with matching contributions and a pension plan. The company announced it would freeze all pension plans on June 30, 2006 for managerial employees and increase 401(k) contributions. These employees will retain pension benefits they have already earned, continue to be eligible to grow into their early retirement pensions, and on June 30, 2006, receive an 18-month enhancement to the value of their pension and retiree medical benefits. These changes will not affect current retirees.
Management employees hired after Jan. 1, 2006, will no longer earn pension benefits.
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