I don't think clowns in the "leadership" have a clue about executing a successful JV, much less so in Europe.
It would have been very difficult to pull it off in a much more favourable state of the economy; now it's an act of desperation and admission of being clueless how to reinvigorate the business because Verizon consistently failed to invest in it in better times.
It's a continuation of the financial engineering. High-maintenance, low-margin/unprofitable operations are removed from the core income statement to artificially inflates the parent company's margins and overall profitability ratios.
What can Verizon Group Vice President and Head of EMEA bring to the table to hold back the tide?
It's naive to think that a highly indebted parent company will keep investing in a JV focused on an unprofitable managed services business.