Verizon posts solid fourth-quarter earnings

The ailing U.S. economy hasn't hurt Verizon yet, as the carrier Tuesday reported net profits of $1.2 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008.

The earnings represented a 15% increase over Verizon's fourth quarter of 2007 revenues, which clocked in at just over $1 billion. The company also posted revenues of $24.6 billion for fourth quarter 2008, a 3.4% increase over its fourth quarter 2007 revenues.

For the entire year of 2008, Verizon posted a net income of $6.4 billion, which marked a 16.4% increase over its 2007 income of $5.5 billion. The company's revenues totaled $97.4 billion for all of 2008, an increase of 4% over the $93.5 billion in revenues the company totaled in 2007.

The major engine for Verizon's growth continued to be its wireless offerings, which posted an operating income of $3.8 billion in fourth 2008, or roughly 27% greater than the $3 billion operating income that the segment posted in fourth 2007. For the year, Verizon's wireless segment posted an operating income of nearly $14 billion, an 18.6% increase over the $11.8 billion operating income it posted in 2007. The company's wireless segment also added 1.25 million new customers in fourth quarter 2008, bringing its total customer additions for the year to nearly 6.4 million. In all, Verizon Wireless now has 72 million subscribers.

Verizon's wireline business had considerably less success than its wireless business, however, as the company's wireline segment posted an operating income of $3.8 billion for 2008, a decrease of 14.1% from the $4.5 billion operating income the segment reported in 2007. The fourth quarter of 2008 was particularly hard on the wireline segment, as it generated an operating income of $713 million, which marked a 40% decrease compared with the $1.2 billion operating income that the segment reported in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Verizon's continued strong earnings stand in sharp contrast to rival carrier Sprint, which has been besieged for the past year with customer losses, poor earnings reports and layoffs. AT&T  Verizon's chief rival for wireless subscribers, is due to release its earnings report on Wednesday.