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Verizon<\/a>, the\u00a0largest carrier in the U.S. and owner of a large\u00a0set of media properties\u00a0via\u00a0AOL<\/a>\u00a0(including TechCrunch), today reported<\/a>\u00a0mixed\u00a0third-quarter earnings and saw growth\u00a0in subscriber numbers. But it\u00a0was light on a\u00a0detail about the big elephant in the room: would it\u00a0ask\u00a0for a discount on its original, recent\u00a0$4.83 billion<\/a> offer to buy\u00a0Yahoo?<\/p>\n Update:<\/strong> During the analyst call, Verizon executives were asked about the impact of the Yahoo privacy breach on the deal.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, [CEO Lowell McAdam and Verizon general counsel Craig Silliman<\/a>]\u00a0have both commented on this recently,\u201d said\u00a0Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo. \u201cLet me just reiterate what they have said \u2014 we are still evaluating what it means for the transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n Shammo added that Verizon\u2019s lawyers had their first discussion with Yahoo about the issue yesterday and noted that it was \u201can extremely large breach\u201d: \u201cWe have to assume it will have a material impact on Yahoo.\u201d<\/p>\n He also suggested that there will probably be a lengthy evaluation process before Verizon makes a decision.<\/p>\n Verizon reported\u00a0$30.9 billion in revenues for the quarter with non-GAAP earnings at $1.01. This slightly\u00a0missed and beat\u00a0analysts\u2019 respective\u00a0midpoint estimates<\/a> of $31.09 billion in revenues and $0.99 for EPS. Pointedly, the\u00a0revenue figure was down 6.7 percent compared with a year ago (although slightly up on the previous, consecutive, quarter), and EPS was also down\u00a0nearly three\u00a0percent in the same period.<\/p>\n Wireless revenues, the majority of its sales, were $22.1 billion, also down by\u00a03.9 percent, \u201cas more customers continued to choose unsubsidized device payment plans.\u201d<\/p>\n Verizo reported 442,000 retail postpaid net additions for its Wireless division in the quarter (ex-IoT and wholesale connections\u2026 IoT is another area the company very much wants to push<\/a> going forward). Verizon said at the end of Q3 it had\u00a0113.7 million retail connections, up only 2.6 percent year-over-year.<\/p>\n But there was nary a mention of the Yahoo situation in the earnings report, except to note that the deal is still ongoing. The situation, of course, is that Verizon\u00a0reportedly might propose to pay as much as $1 billion<\/a>\u00a0less for the internet property after it revealed a security breach that affected 500 million users, and that it was allegedly\u00a0scanning customers\u2019 emails on an order from the government, without disclosing that information.<\/p>\n (Yahoo, meanwhile, this week tried\u00a0to demonstrate<\/a>\u00a0that the controversies have had little impact on its business.) If Verizon cancels the deal completely, it must pay a termination fee of about\u00a0$145 million. We will listen to the call later to see if anything gets brought up and addressed then.<\/p>\n Verizon\u2019s\u00a0subscriber numbers appear to be a short-term indication that at least for now it\u2019s not seeing extensive churn with the arrival of the iPhone 7 and competing trade-in offers from other carriers for the newer device.<\/p>\n Perhaps to offset further worries around this, earlier today Verizon also reminded<\/a> the public that it\u2019s also taking orders for Google\u2019s Pixel phones, although it has also already warned<\/a> that in store the XL model, which was due to go on sale today, is already sold out.<\/p>\n On the wireline front, Verizon reported revenues for Fios, its fiber-based video and internet service, of $2.8 billion, up 4.4 percent on a year ago, and a turnaround for declines in Q2 that it faced during the employee strike. It also added 90,000 internet and 36,000 customers in the quarter.<\/p>\n Notably, Verizon didn\u2019t mention anything in the earnings report about one of its other recent video efforts, Go90, which is an OTT play that will be one of the areas where Verizon would have integrated Yahoo. There seems to be some anecdotal evidence<\/a> that it\u2019s not proving to be much of a success so far.<\/p>\n Revenue growth for the company right now is an important metric, considering its recent track record and how it indicates that growth has gone off a cliff in the last three quarters:<\/p>\n