Verizon Q4 loss doubles, pushed by Sandy, pension costs

From CNET News.com: Superstorm Sandy and mounting pension costs took a toll on Verizon.

The New York telecommunications provider posted a fourth-quarter loss of $4.22 billion, or $1.48 a share, compared with a year-ago loss of $2 billion, or 71 cents a share. The results were affected by costs associated with Superstorm Sandy, which devastated the Northeast region late last year, and by a change in the valuation of its pension liabilities owed to its employees. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 38 cents a share.

The pension liabilities cut into earnings by $1.55 a share, while the early retirement of debt and other restructuring activities cut another 31 cents a share from earnings. Sandy cost another 7 cents a share.

Revenue, meanwhile, rose 5.7 percent to $30 billion.

Analysts, on average, expected Verizon to post earnings of 52 cents a share and revenue of $29.75 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

One of the highlight numbers was 2.1 million, or the number of net new contract subscribers it added in the quarter. CEO Lowell McAdam disclosed that figure last week during an analyst presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show.

The number is impressive given that nearly every other carrier has seen either continued subscriber losses or drastically reduced growth.

Unsurprisingly, the iPhone played a big part in wireless subscriber growth. The company said that a higher mix of the customers purchased iPhone than before, spurred by the release of the iPhone 5 in October. Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo told analysts during a conference call today that the carrier had activated 6.2 million iPhones, with the iPhone 5 making up half of the total sales.

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