Verizon Sees Slow Growth Ahead

Verizon reported a 0.6% year-on-year increase in revenue for the fourth quarter, excluding divestitures and acquisitions, to 34 billion US dollars.  However, wireless service revenue was down 2.9% to 15.9 billion dollars.

The New York-based company forecast that full-year revenues will grow at low-single-digit percentage rates on a GAAP basis in 2018. Excluding the impact from the new revenue recognition standard, Verizon said it is on track to achieve year-over-year wireless service revenue growth by the middle part of 2018. On a GAAP basis, Verizon expects service revenue growth to turn positive around the end of 2018 or early 2019.

Verizon said its media business serves approximately one billion "monthly unique users", generating revenue of 2.2 billion US dollars in the fourth quarter (Verizon completed the acquisition of Yahoo! in June 2017). It has content distribution partnerships with the NFL and the NBA. Verizon also reported a 8% year-on-year organic increase in telematics and Internet of Things revenue in the fourth quarter, claiming it has the world’s largest fleet management platform.  source: Verizon statement

Netflix Forecasts Even Faster Growth

Netflix reported a 33% year-on-year increase in revenue for the fourth quarter to 3.29 billion US dollars, as the number of paid streaming memberships rose 25% and its average selling price rose 9% from the same period in 2016. Netflix said: "Q4 capped an amazing year for Netflix original content with returning seasons of The Crown and Black Mirror as well as Stranger Things, which cemented its place as a global phenomenon."

The Los Gatos, California company forecast a 40% leap in revenues for the first quarter of 2018 to 3.7 billion dollars.  In 2017, Netflix added 24 million new memberships compared with 19 million in 2016. source: Netflix statement

Huawei Reports Slowing Growth

Huawei estimates its group revenue increased 15% in 2017 to 600 billion Chinese yuan (91.2 billion US dollars), which would mean last year saw the company’s slowest growth since 2013. It reported a 10% increase in mobile phone shipments in 2017 to 153 million units.

In a statement, Huawei rotating CEO Ken Hu, said: “As a global player, we need to be patient and persistent, demonstrating our value and contribution one quiet step at a time. We need to earn trust, continue to improve, and cultivate a receptive business environment that can support business development on a whole new level: not just 100 billion dollars, but revenues of hundreds of billions of dollars and beyond.” Source: Mobile World Live article.