Verizon Communications, the largest U.S. telecommunications company, saw its second-quarter earnings rise 18 percent on the sale of its Hawaii local telephone business, the carrier said Tuesday.
Verizon, which is trying to close its $8.6 billion purchase of MCI, said it earned $2.11 billion, or 75 cents per share, compared with earnings of $1.8 billion, or 64 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Excluding a $336 million gain from the Hawaii sale and other one-time items, Verizon said it earned $1.77 billion, or 63 cents per share. Revenue rose 4.6 percent to $18.57 billion, as its Verizon Wireless unit added 1.9 million new customers.
Analysts on average had expected Verizon to earn 64 cents per share before one-time items on revenue of $18.63 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
The company raised its forecast for capital spending in 2005 to a 15 percent increase from the $13.3 billion spent in 2004, up from 10 percent. Verizon said the increase was due to growth in its wireless unit and the rollout of video services.
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