Verizon introduced this week that CEO Hans Vestberg has been replaced “efficient instantly” by former PayPal CEO and longtime telecom veteran Dan Schulman. Schulman has been on Verizon’s board since 2018. Earlier than his CEO submit at PayPal, which ran from 2014 to 2023, his telecom expertise included positions at AT&T, Virgin Cell and Dash Nextel.
Vestberg’s new function can be as particular advisor by Oct. 4, 2026, and he’ll stay on the board of administrators till the subsequent annual assembly.
Of the three main mobile carriers within the US, two have now shuffled their CEOs within the span of simply two weeks. T-Mobile named former Chief Operating Officer Srini Gopalan its new CEO on Sept. 22, taking up from Mike Sievert. (Sievert remains to be CEO till Nov. 1, when Gopalan assumes the function.)
It is unclear why Verizon is making this abrupt transfer now, simply after the top of the third monetary quarter of 2025 and three weeks earlier than it releases the corporate’s earnings.
“2025 is shaping as much as be an epically bizarre yr for the wi-fi business with tariffs, authorities cuts, yo-yoing labor market, and common financial malaise,” mentioned Jason Leigh, senior analysis supervisor of 5G and mobility analysis at IDC, in an e mail to CNET.
Leigh speculated that Verizon’s CEO shift might portend a strategic shift towards growing 6G applied sciences. “Everybody remains to be attempting to find that transformative technique that’s going to appreciate the modern and monetary promise of the billions invested in 5G,” he mentioned, including, “earlier than the crowbar goes into the pockets to start out funding 6G deployments.”
Verizon didn’t reply to a request for remark.
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Former Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg presenting at CES in 2022.
This management change and its timing places extra strain on Verizon’s upcoming quarterly earnings report, particularly as a result of the corporate has seen quite a lot of churn in clients throughout the previous yr.
In June, I spoke with Sowmyanarayan Sampath, CEO of Verizon’s shopper group (who would appear to be the anticipated alternative for the highest function), concerning the firm’s new Gemini AI-based customer support initiative. I requested him concerning the first quarter of 2025, when the corporate lost nearly 300,000 wireless customers, and he credited the fluctuation to “the seasonality of the enterprise.”
Within the second quarter of 2025, Verizon appeared to steadiness these numbers, however in numerous areas. It misplaced 51,000 wi-fi postpaid clients, added 50,000 wi-fi pay as you go clients and 278,000 broadband clients.
Verizon can be in the course of buying Frontier Communications, which is predicted to shut within the first quarter of 2026. The Federal Communications Fee approved the purchase in Could 2025, however solely after Verizon agreed to finish its variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI) packages.
Schulman has a file of standing up for insurance policies not favored by the Trump administration, for instance, when PayPal in 2016 stopped a planned expansion in North Carolina after the state handed a regulation requiring authorities buildings to make loos single-sex solely. In 2020, he spoke to CNET following the killing of George Floyd by police.
