The former Ericsson Chief Executive Officer, Hans Vestberg joined Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) and will lead a team building out its fiber network infrastructures amid growing competition from smaller rivals, the company declared in a statement.
Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics, stated in a statement, “It shows with Vestberg that they want to go back to having that network superiority, which has been increasingly eroded.”
Roger then added that this decision of the company also sets up Hans Vestberg, as a potential successor to Verizon Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam. Verizon Communications, one of the leading wireless carriers of U.S. said Vestberg will initially be based in Sweden, but join the U.S. based team later this spring.
“What bringing someone in for the outside means is you need a new perspective,” said Entner.
Verizon further explained that it is restructuring operations into three areas including Vestberg’s team. The media and telematics unit will focus on new businesses in digital media, including integrating its pending acquisition of Yahoo Inc. It will be led by Marni Walden as executive vice president for media and telematics.
While, the customer and product operations team, which is led by John Stratton, is supposed to work on operating and growing company’s established businesses, such as Verizon Wireless and Verizon Enterprise Solutions.
As per the industry analysts, both Walden and Stratton are seen as potential successors to McAdam.
