As per media reports, Verizon has started to lay off India staff at their units in Hyderabad and Chennai. It’s reported that more than 900 people may have been asked to leave. It is part of the ‘rationalizing roles’ process, as per Verizon.

Although Verizon has confirmed the layoff in its IT workforce, they didn’t disclose the number of employees affected. 

The layoffs were anticipated since the merger of Verizon, AOL, and Yahoo! earlier this year. Media reports at that time had suggested that up to 15 percent of the employees of the merged entity would be affected globally by layoffs.

"As Verizon consolidates its strategy so we can scale, compete and continue to be successful, Verizon's IT, including Verizon Data Services India, is transforming into an engineering-centric, technology organization. The transformation entails rationalization of roles which has an impact on headcount," the company said in a statement, without sharing details about how many employees were impacted.

"We are doing role rationalization not to meet a specific number but to match the talent with the requirements of the business for its future," it said. Verizon, however, said it was doing role rationalization not to meet a specific number but to match the talent with the requirements of the business. 

“The market reality is marked by fierce competition,” the firm said in a statement.

As of November, at least 2,600 employees had been affected by Verizon’s layoffs globally, with most of them in the media arm “Oath”. It is not clear if the fired employees belong to the former AOL and Yahoo! units.