Fortune 500: Titans and Disruptors of Industry · Nov 11, 2026 · 1h 4m · 54m saved
With Dan Schulman, CEO of Verizon
Photo via fortune.com
Verizon had fallen from first to last in market capitalization among its peers after five years of losing market share. Dan Schulman, CEO of Verizon, told Alyson Shontell, editor-in-chief of Fortune, on Fortune 500: Titans and Disruptors of Industry how he is trying to reverse that one year into a three-year turnaround.
Most carriers still win customers by handing out free phones. Dan stopped tying phone subsidies to service plans, and Verizon's net additions rose ninefold while the cost of acquiring each one fell 41%.
"We were a big, lumbering giant that had fallen behind. I think we were playing not to lose, as opposed to playing to win." — Dan Schulman
Dan ran PayPal and chaired Symantec's board, and he was Verizon's independent lead director before the board talked him out of retirement on a Montana cattle ranch.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 64 minutes of audio, 10 minutes of reading.
Here are the 10 insights that matter.
Key Takeaways
Decoupling phone subsidies from plans lifted net adds ninefold and cut acquisition cost 41%
"Net ads were up nine times, not quite 10, but nine times from a year ago"
Dan set out to find about $5 billion in opex savings and cut about $4 billion from the capex run rate
Decommissioned copper central offices turned out to be ready-made sites for edge computing
Dan would not be shocked by 100 billion AI agents, "like 10 for everyone"
Dan now assumes SpaceX will deliver on its plans, but satellites cannot compete where "98% of our revenues are"
Dan has no tolerance for risk in financial reporting, cybersecurity and compliance, and rates himself "an eight or a nine" on trying new things
Business leaders must ready their communities for AI, which Dan says "is upon us"
1. Back From a Montana Ranch
Dan had retired to a cattle ranch in Montana with his wife when Verizon's board asked him to become CEO. He said no at first, and the board asked more than once. Dan agreed because he knew the management team and the board, and he thought the assets were strong: about 150 million lines, the largest customer base in the industry.
Dan Schulman says Verizon had dropped to the bottom of its industry before he took over
"We had gone from being first in market capitalization in our industry to last. We had the lowest PE... and so we needed to make a change." — Dan Schulman
He also felt an obligation to try to fix the company he had overseen as lead director. A year later his view of the job has changed.
Dan Schulman returned reluctantly and now says he enjoys the work
"I came in with a little bit of a bad attitude, but here we are a year later, and I'm absolutely loving it, and pretty hopeful about our future as well." — Dan Schulman
