Verizon CEO Remains Optimistic, Despite Economic Crisis

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Verizon CEO Remains Optimistic, Despite Economic Crisis

5:55 am on October 16, 2008 | Category: Business, Telephone, Internet, Wireless

American telecom giant, Verizon Communications, is well positioned to endure the ongoing global financial crisis, according to the company’s CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, speaking at this week’s Media & Money Conference, a joint production of Dow Jones and Nielsen.

“We expect some impact, but our view is that we will weather this,” Seidenberg said predicting that Verizon’s broadband and wireless businesses would remain strong through economic uncertainty.

“(Consumers) may pull back and not buy as many premium services,” he said. “But the question is will they pull back their spending on what we sell? … We sell the most indispensable device that consumers have, the mobile phone.”

Seidenberg downplayed the impact of the declining fixed-line telephone market, saying that this trend has been occurring for years, and that Verizon is well positioned to continue serving defecting landline subscribers in other ways.

“We’re already losing landlines, but as we do, we pick up wireless and broadband customers,” Seidenberg explained, noting that the economic slowdown could actually have a positive effect on Verizon’s high-speed internet business.

“If people travel less, they are home more,” he said. “And if they are going out to eat less, they are home more. And that’s likely to mean they will spend more time on their computers or using other applications.”