Verizon cuts 7 percent of jobs in media unit

FILE PHOTO - The Verizon logo is seen on the side of a truck in New York City, U.S., October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

(Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc is cutting about 7 percent, or about 800 jobs, at its media unit, it said on Wednesday. The cuts are in addition to a voluntary separation program announced by Verizon in December that will see about 10,400 employees leave by the middle of 2019. Verizon Media, formerly called Oath and home to its Yahoo and AOL divisions, had 11,385 employees at end of 2018. The unit has struggled to improve Verizon's digital advertising business, which competes with the likes of Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google for ad dollars. (Reporting by Akanksha Rana and Sheila Dang in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)