Verizon Communications appointed former PayPal head Dan Schulman as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), replacing incumbent Hans Vestberg in a leadership transition that will help the telecom giant navigate slowing growth in the wireless market. The leadership change comes at a time when the telecom giant is trying to navigate slowing subscriber growth and wariness from consumers who are reluctant to pay for premium plans from wireless carriers.
Dan Schulman had run PayPal for almost a decade until he left in 2023 to guide the payments firm through its separation from eBay and a rise in online purchases during the COVID pandemic. Schulman, who has been on the Verizon board for seven years, is working to enhance the customer experience. In an email to employees, he said that the lessons from PayPal that were “most important at the time were not about technology or scale, they were about culture, listening to customers and enabling teams to make real change. We must deliver financial results better than market expectations.”
In 2021, Vestberg led the USD 52 billion purchase and clearing of key wireless C-Band spectrum in an auction and negotiated with regulators and airlines over its deployment, and a USD 20 billion deal to acquire Frontier Communications and a USD 6 billion acquisition of prepaid mobile phones provider TracFone Wireless. Verizon has also discussed potential spectrum deals with EchoStar.
“We have transformed our business with transformational investments in C-Band spectrum, which will position us to win in the next era of connectivity, and we are on the cusp of closing the acquisition of Frontier, which will expand our broadband footprint and create even more opportunity for growth,” Vestberg said in a note to employees.
“For the past few years, our financial growth has relied too heavily on price increases. Every year it gets harder to grow as we lap past price increases and experience higher churn,” the new CEO stated, giving a sneak peek of Verizon’s intention to shift to a customer-centric approach for growth, with an efficient cost structure.
Vestberg also guided the company through heavy 5G investments and diversification of revenue through media and enterprise services, although it later exited most of its media holdings. He assumed the role in 2018 and will stay with the company as a special adviser until October 2026. Shares of rival telecom operators have outperformed Verizon in the past few years. The move follows T-Mobile naming a new CEO in recent weeks as the US telecom sector changes, with its biggest players vying for consumer dollars.
Verizon maintains the highest price points compared to its peers, a strategy analysts have flagged, stating that it is difficult to sustain amid rising competitive intensity. Carriers rolled out competitive deals, trade-in discounts, and switching benefits to attract customers as they looked to protect their customer base in an active switcher environment following the September 2025 iPhone launches.
Meet Dan Schulman
Dan Schulman was born in Newark, New Jersey. He grew up in Princeton in a family deeply rooted in social activism. He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree from Middlebury College and MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business. His education helped shape his values of leadership, equality, and innovation.
He started his professional career at AT&T, where he spent 18 years and rose to become the President. He handled the Consumer Markets Division. Later, he became President and CEO of Priceline Group. In the middle of his career, he founded and led Virgin Mobile USA, taking it public and eventually selling it to Sprint. He later served as a Group President at American Express. He continued to rise as a leader and managed global online and mobile payment services.
His next major role came in 2014, when he joined PayPal as President and became its CEO in 2015. He oversees a massive transformation that tripled the company’s revenue and expanded its user base worldwide. At work, Schulman focused on financial inclusion and employee equity.
Meanwhile, Verizon managed to beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit and wireless subscriber additions, as promotions around the recent iPhone launches helped the United States wireless service provider attract more customers.
According to data from FactSet, the company added 44,000 total monthly bill-paying wireless subscribers in the third quarter of the 2025-26 financial year, compared with expectations for 19,000 additions.
Dan Schulman’s appointment, along with the latest market results, will certainly ease investor concerns that Verizon is losing ground to rivals T-Mobile, AT&T and low-cost cable providers. The company’s customisable myPlan, which offers a three-year price guarantee, has remained popular among customers. Over 18% of the company’s wireless postpaid users have also opted for its broadband offerings.
The company has also reaffirmed its profit and free cash flow forecast for the full year and said it expects capital expenditures to be within or below the previously guided range of USD 17.5 billion to USD 18.5 billion. Total revenue for the quarter was USD 33.8 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of USD 34.28 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. On an adjusted basis, Verizon earned USD 1.21 per share, topping analysts’ estimates of USD 1.19.
Photo Credits: Lazard