Verizon (VZ) has contacted candidates to potentially replace Sowmyanarayan Sampath, the senior executive who leads the company’s consumer division and was once considered for the top job at the U.S. telecom, according to a report by the Financial Times on Monday.
Sampath was expected to replace Hans Vestberg as CEO after his abrupt exit, but the company picked longtime board member Dan Schulman instead. Schulman was instrumental in the decision to part ways with Vestberg, two people familiar with the matter told FT.
Schulman was then given a 27-month contract with an option to extend, according to one of the people who spoke to FT, who added that this was a factor in Sampath’s potential departure.
One of the people told FT that Sampath had received several offers of new employment but had yet to formalize an exit plan. His exit was also not guaranteed, the person added.
Sampath’s exit would rattle the telecom, which has been struggling to maintain market share against rivals AT&T (T) and T-Mobile (TMUS). The company is still recovering reputationally from the massive January outage, for which it offered a $20 credit to its customers.