The profit that accrues to those partnerships either never gets back to Verizon (in which case how is it relevant?) or simply "bellows" (as you put it) the cash flow to Verizon. In the latter case, it'll still show up in long-term measurements. But at the end of the day, Verizon's 5-year profit margin is 13% while AT&T's is 11%. That's about the same as Starbucks. Google and Apple are at 20%+, and Facebook is at 28%.