"we're about to grow a ton, better cut 10k jobs to maximize those gains."
that just sounds so... weird to me.
That's a significant chunk of their workforce! I suspect Verizon will quietly be hiring thousands of people from places where they can legally pay them less than these 10+ thousand.
The working conditions in call-centers or guys doing installation & maintenance tend to be absolutely horrendous across the board.
It makes perfect sense. T-Mobile basically bought up all the spectrum in the last round of bidding because they got a $4B breakup fee from AT&T as part of AT&T's failed acquisition. That has put all the other U.S. carriers on the defensive, because if they can't win a significant percentage of the 5G spectrum then they're going to be out of business.
So yeah, this is a hard purchase for them, especially since they also have $209 B in liabilities already.
For significant business purposes, both Verizon and AT&T could borrow $40b easily. Whether for an acquisition or critical spectrum buy. They both have plenty of borrowing capacity despite being highly leveraged (it'll very likely end badly one day in the future).