LONDON, June 29 — The scene inside BT Group’s headquarters this morning was one of sharp recalibration. By midday, the telecom giant had announced a sweeping restructuring of its international operations alongside Verizon, a deal that immediately reshapes how two of the world’s largest carriers do business outside their home markets. The two companies are merging their international operations into a joint venture.
The move effectively pulls BT’s global enterprise business — a sprawling network serving multinational corporations — into a new entity co-owned with the American carrier. On the ground in London, analysts describe the deal as a strategic retreat for BT, which has long struggled to turn its overseas corporate-services division into a reliable profit engine.
Alongside the joint-venture announcement, BT slashed its financial outlook for fiscal year 2027. The company now expects materially lower revenue and earnings than previously forecast, a cut that rippled through trading desks by early afternoon. The revised guidance reflects the separation of assets going into the JV and what BT described as ongoing weakness in its legacy business lines.
Verizon, for its part, is folding its own global enterprise unit into the partnership. The joint venture will serve corporate clients across dozens of countries, combining network infrastructure and sales teams.
Neither company disclosed the precise ownership split or the financial terms of the deal, but both emphasized the structure as a way to cut costs and compete against larger rivals in the business-to-business telecom market. The announcement lands at a moment of intense consolidation across the industry. European telecoms have been under mounting pressure from activist investors to shed non-core assets and focus on domestic networks.
For BT, the joint venture represents a clean break from a business that has weighed on its balance sheet for years. By nightfall, the market’s verdict was still forming. BT shares moved lower in London trading as investors digested the lowered outlook, while Verizon’s stock held steady in pre-market activity in New York.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the calendar year, pending regulatory approvals in multiple jurisdictions. What to watch next: whether the joint venture can actually deliver the cost savings both companies are banking on — and whether other European carriers follow BT’s lead in spinning off their international arms.
