BT Group and Verizon launch $4 bn global joint venture

BT Group and Verizon announced on Monday a joint venture to combine their international enterprise operations, creating a new global connectivity business with approximately $4 billion in annual revenue. The deal, expected to close in 2027, ends BT's long-running effort to find a partner for its overseas division as it refocuses on its domestic UK market.

Under the agreement, Verizon will pay BT an equalization payment of $625 million, after which both companies will hold equal voting rights and ownership stakes in the new entity. The joint venture will serve more than 3,000 enterprise customers across over 180 countries, combining BT International with Verizon's international enterprise wireline arm.

The move is central to BT's strategy of shedding international assets. The company carved out its international division as a standalone unit last July, employing around 8,000 people, and has since sold its Italian business and agreed to sell its Irish wholesale and enterprise unit. BT recently increased its group-wide cost-cutting target to $3.7 billion over the next four years, a plan that could eliminate up to 55,000 jobs globally. Verizon has also been pursuing cost reductions,...