Verizon look poised for a big year in 2016. Strong financials, solid acquisitions and on-trend product development could make 2016 a very successful year for the technology company. With growing footholds in mobile, video, cross-platform and the IoT, Verizon are one to watch this year. 

Financial Highlights

– USD$1.32 (£0.93) earnings per share (EPS), compared with a loss of USD$0.54 (£0.38) per share in 4Q 2014, including impacts in both quarters related to the annual actuarial valuation of benefit plans and mark-to-market pension adjustments

– USD $0.89 (£0.63) in adjusted EPS (non-GAAP), a 25.4% increase compared with adjusted EPS of USD $0.71 (£0.50) in 4Q 2014

– Total operating revenue in fourth-quarter 2015 was USD$34.3bn (£24.10bn), a 3.2% increase compared with fourth-quarter 2014

– For the full year, Verizon reported total consolidated revenues of USD$131.6bn (£92.46bn). Full-year 2015 revenues grew 3.6%, compared with full-year 2014. Current-quarter and third-quarter revenues include results from AOL

– New revenue streams from IoT are growing, with revenue of approximately USD$200m (£140.52m) in fourth-quarter 2015, and about USD$690m (£484.78m) for the full year. This is a year-over-year increase of 18%

– Added 1.5 million new wireless customers in 2015

“In 2015, Verizon delivered strong and balanced results in a dynamic competitive environment while returning more than USD$13.5bn (£9.48bn) to shareholders. At the same time, Verizon built and acquired next-generation network capabilities that position the company to be an innovator in the digital-first mobile world in 2016 and beyond”, said chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam.

In 2015, Verizon invested approximately USD$28bn (£19.67bn) in spectrum licenses and capital for future network capacity, in addition to the more than USD$4bn (£2.81bn) acquisition of AOL Inc in June.

The acquisitions of AOL and Millennial Media showed the online advertising industry that Verizon is intent on being a serious player in the cross-platform mobile and video space.

In 2015, the company launched the go90 mobile-first social entertainment platform, Custom TV options for Fios customers, the hum direct-to-consumer telematics product, and the Thingspace suite of developer tools to advance the Internet of Things market.

Verizon’s investments have also positioned the company to lead in the deployment of 5G wireless broadband.

“Verizon embraced transformational change in 2015, and in 2016 the company has a huge opportunity to drive a new era of growth in our industry”, McAdam said.

Verizon seem to be in a strong position going into 2016. The company has invested significantly in both mobile phone technology and broadband technology, meaning they have an understanding of consumer behaviour and habits way before many ad tech point solutions.

Smart acquisitions have equipped Verizon with solid ad tech, able to compete with the plethora of other point solutions available on the market today. It remains to be seen whether brands will be tempted away from the stack solutions that have typically been favoured over the last few years and instead invest in integrating point solutions.

The IoT trend is being embraced by consumers and Verizon appear poised to capitalise on this increased connectivity. The company's suite of developer tools, Thingspace, will be interesting to watch, as currently software developer toolkits (SDKs) are under-used in today's connected ecosystem. Verizon, with its large footprint and influence, could have the power to transform how developers work in this space.

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