Windstream Posts $68 Million Loss For Q2, Ends Quarterly Dividend

Written by Edward Gately
August 3, 2017

This was Windstream’s first full quarter since the completion of its $1.1 billion purchase of EarthLink.

Windstream on Thursday reported a $68 million loss for the second quarter of 2017 compared to $1.5 million in profit for the same quarter last year.

Revenue was $1.49 billion for the quarter, up 10 percent compared to $1.36 billion for the year-ago quarter.

Windstream’s Tony Thomas

Windstream also announced it has eliminated the company’s quarterly shareholder dividend effective immediately and authorized the repurchase of up to $90 million of the company’s common stock effective through the first quarter of 2019.

“Our equity is undervalued especially given our improved strategic direction with enhanced product capabilities, management talent additions and anticipated acquisition synergies of $180 million,” said Tony Thomas, Windstream’s president and CEO. “The elimination of the dividend along with the $90 million buyback program and delevering that will also occur will create value for all our stakeholders. This is the right path for our company.”

This was Windstream’s first full quarter since the completion of its $1.1 billion purchase of EarthLink. Last week, it finalized its $227.5 million acquisition of Broadview Networks.

“Our unique network assets and cloud-based applications have us well positioned to grow market share,” Thomas said. “Additionally, we continue to improve our cost structure and have significant opportunities to further drive down costs through reductions in network interconnection costs, upcoming synergies from the EarthLink and Broadview transactions, and initiatives to advance our organizational effectiveness.”

Service revenue was $1.46 billion in the first quarter, up 10 percent from $1.33 billion for the year-ago quarter. Consumer and small business ILEC service revenues were $387 million, down 2 percent.

Wholesale service revenue was $176 million, up 10 percent year over year. Enterprise service revenue was $564 million, up 15 percent from a year ago.

CLEC consumer and small business service revenue was $189 million, up 51 percent from the year-ago quarter.

This week, Windstream launched an enhanced SD-WAN offering that incorporates its technology with EarthLink’s.