New York, February 6, 2026, 14:05 EST — Regular session
Shares of Verizon Communications Inc dropped close to 2% on Friday, slipping 91 cents to $46.19 in afternoon trading. The stock traded between $47.22 and $46.06, with roughly 20.1 million shares changing hands.
The decline puts the spotlight on a company undergoing significant shifts. Verizon is overhauling leadership in its most customer-facing division and ramping up its stance against a major competitor.
For investors, the focus isn’t on any single executive but on how well the company executes. Wireless churn—the rate at which customers leave—can shift rapidly, as can service quality, especially when leadership changes or internal promotions draw attention.
Chief executive Dan Schulman informed employees that Sowmyanarayan Sampath will step down from his role leading the consumer group. Alfonso Villanueva, the chief transformation officer, will take over as interim CEO of the Verizon Consumer Group. “Sampath has agreed that now is the right time to step down,” Schulman wrote. 1
A recent regulatory filing shed more light on the situation. According to an 8-K — the SEC’s required disclosure for significant corporate events — Sampath stepped down as executive vice president and group CEO of Verizon Consumer on Feb. 4. He’ll stay on in an advisory capacity until March 27, when he is set to depart the company. 2
The management shake-up comes amid wider cost and operational shifts since Schulman stepped in as CEO last October. Back in November, Verizon announced plans to slash 13,000 jobs and franchise 179 corporate-owned retail stores. Then, a 10-hour outage last month triggered an FCC probe, pushing Verizon to hand out $20 credits to affected customers. 3
This week, Verizon Wireless took T-Mobile US to Manhattan federal court, accusing the rival carrier of false advertising. Verizon claims T-Mobile’s ads misleadingly promise customers can save over $1,000 annually by switching. The lawsuit demands triple damages under the Lanham Act, a U.S. law targeting false advertising and trademark issues, and seeks an injunction to halt the ads. T-Mobile did not immediately respond, Reuters reported. 4
Verizon slipped despite a bounce back on Wall Street, where major indexes climbed after tech stocks took a hit. AT&T dropped roughly 1%, while T-Mobile fell close to 2%. 5
Analyst Don Kellogg of Recon Analytics linked the shake-up to ongoing succession issues. “You don’t pay someone $4 million to stay unless you think they might leave,” he noted, citing previous retention deals as evidence that internal talks were already strained. 6
Still, the downside is clear: leadership changes often bog down decision-making, and a battle over advertising can easily slide into a price war. If promotions ramp up or service problems pop back, Verizon may see costs rise precisely when it’s aiming to streamline. Plus, lawsuits tend to drag on far longer than markets prefer.
Investors are now focused on the timeline for the transition and whether a permanent replacement will be named. Sampath is set to leave on March 27, with traders closely watching for any news on the consumer group leadership before that date. 7
