Verizon Communications posted a quarterly loss due to hefty severance charges and revenue declined even as its wireless venture added more new monthly-bill paying customers than analysts expected.

Verizon posted a second-quarter loss of $198 million, or 7 cents per share, compared with a profit of $1.48 billion, or 52 cents per share, in the same quarter the year before.

The company had said in June it expected to take a significant charge from buyout offers to its employees that were aimed at reducing its workforce to cut costs.

Excluding items such as the $2.3 billion charge, its earnings per share would have been 58 cents compared with analyst expectations for 56 cents, according to Thomson Reuters
I/B/E/S.

Operating revenue fell 0.3 percent to $26.77 billion from $26.86 billion a year earlier.

Verizon Wireless, its venture with Vodafone Group Plc added 665,000 postpaid mobile subscribers compared with the average expectation for 570,000 from eight analysts contacted by Reuters.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Derek Caney)

Verizon Communications Inc. Broadband