BT and Verizon form $4 billion joint venture to serve multinational enterprise clients

BT Group and Verizon announced on June 29 that they will merge their international enterprise units into a single 50:50 joint venture, combining $4 billion in annual revenue and a customer base spanning more than 180 countries. The deal hands BT a $625 million equalization payment from Verizon, reflecting the different scale of the two contributions, and gives both carriers equal voting rights in the new company, according to Reuters reporters Yadarisa Shabong and Paul Sandle.

The venture will serve more than 3,000 multinational customers. BT chief executive Allison Kirkby told Reuters the market it is entering is highly fragmented and that the deal could be the first step toward broader consolidation, including the possibility of bringing in third-party partners at a later stage.

Strategic logic for both carriers

For BT, the arrangement accelerates a deliberate shift back toward its home UK market. The 180-year-old British operator has been shedding international assets under Kirkby, and Reuters previously reported that weakness in the international unit had weighed on overall earnings. The equalization payment gives BT immediate cash: any amount left after funding the venture will be used to reduce the group's debt load, Kirkby said.

Verizon CEO Dan Schulman framed the venture as the right answer for enterprise customers who need connectivity that works reliably across both borders and cloud environments, according to Reuters. Schulman has been running his own turnaround at the U.S. wireless carrier, and the joint venture lets the company extend its multinational enterprise reach without building new international infrastructure from scratch.

Kirkby described the two companies' customer footprints as largely complementary, with minimal overlap, a condition that tends to smooth regulatory review and simplify post-close integration.

A new CEO and a September start

The companies named Martijn Blanken as CEO-designate of the yet-to-be-branded venture. Blanken brings experience from two major carriers: Telstra in Australia and KPN in the Netherlands. He is set to join BT Group on September 1, 2026, and will work alongside both parent companies as they finalize the operational and regulatory groundwork before the venture formally opens.

The appointment of an outside executive rather than a sitting leader from either parent signals an intention to establish the joint venture as a distinct operating company rather than a unit managed from within one of the two telecoms groups.

Market context

The announcement comes as carriers across Europe and North America look for ways to serve large multinationals more cost-effectively. Managing global enterprise connectivity across dozens of countries requires significant infrastructure, and the fragmented nature of that market makes scale a competitive advantage. Reuters reported earlier this year that BT had been in discussions with several potential partners, including AT&T and Orange, before landing on the Verizon structure.

BT's shares rose roughly 1% in early London trading on the day of the announcement, according to Reuters. The deal still requires regulatory clearance before it can close. Once it does, Blanken will take the helm of one of the larger international enterprise connectivity platforms assembled through a single transaction in recent years.

Kirkby's comment about future consolidation suggests the joint venture could itself become a platform for additional combinations, rather than the end state of BT's international restructuring.