Summary Bullets:

• Any telco in the US making deals must be cognizant of the current administration’s efforts to destroy diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments.

• Service providers have traditionally understood benefits of progressive DEI but now need to conceal efforts from a dogmatic set of regulators for long-term strategic benefit.

Verizon has become the latest telecoms service provider to abandon its DEI programs under pressure from the US administration (please also see: T-Mobile USA: Do or DEI to Close Lumos Deal? – IT Connection, April 7, 2025). The move follows alleged demands from the FCC in exchange for its approval of the $20 billion acquisition of fiber broadband provider Frontier Communications and reflects a broader response across US corporations to the policies of the current administration.

Verizon’s chief legal officer confirmed in writing to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr that the company would remove references to DEI from training materials and websites as well as eliminate performance bonuses designed to increase the percentage of women and minority workers.

The move makes immediate but not long-term commercial sense. If the US administration and regulators make abolition of DEI targets a precondition for any merger and acquisition activity involving US companies, then the removal of DEI initiatives and targets is a precondition to any deals closing – although it is unclear how the DEI issue makes any difference in the combination of Verizon and Frontier. But short-term pragmatism must trump historic commitments to DEI in such cases. Verizon is by no means the only supplicant. The recent proposed merger of Charter and Cox was peppered with MAGA-style references, which did not chime with their historic commitments to DEI, with the proposed deal being positioned as ‘good for America.’

Platitudes like Verizon claiming the move is “a good step forward for equal opportunity, nondiscrimination, and the public interest” highlight a period of doublespeak and doublethink, which is likely to endure for the next 1,340 or so days of the current administration – perhaps even longer. This is in contrast to previous expressions of support for DEI, where Verizon highlighted “a commitment to digital inclusion, climate protection, and human prosperity.”

Short-term pragmatism to deal with government dogmatism is the path that many will have to take to realize any ambitions that require approval from authorities – this may also become a trans-Atlantic issue given current DEI divergence with ongoing commitment to targets across most of the EU and many other countries. The upside of sealing strategic acquisitions is countered by academic evidence (also a target of the current regime) that long-term commitments to DEI create benefits in terms of attracting many blue-chip customers, talent, and partners as well as for shareholder returns.