Facebook And Google dominate digital advertising, but Verizon wants to change that. Like many telcos, Verizon desperately wants to own more of the content that flows through its wired and wireless connections. It also has been building an online-advertising empire, from its acquisition of AOL in 2015 through its purchase of Yahoo, which closed earlier this year. But it has a long way to go to catch up with the big two, as revealed by the company's quarterly earnings report Thursday.
It was the first full quarter since the Yahoo acquisition closed and the first time Verizon disclosed revenue from Oath, the subsidiary formed by mashing AOL and Yahoo together. It was a good quarter overall for Verizon. The company posted adjusted earnings of 98 cents per share on revenue of $31.7 billion, beating analyst expectations. About $2 billion of that revenue came from Oath.