NEW YORK: Long-distance telephone and cable-television leader AT&T Corp.
on Wednesday posted lower fourth-quarter profits from continuing operations amid
weaker revenues, and said it expects sales of long-distance service to business
and consumers to shrink further in 2002.
AT&T, which in December agreed to sell its cable television business to
Comcast Corp., said profits excluding one-time items dropped to 5 cents a share
from 24 cents a share in the year-earlier quarter.
Wall Street analysts had expected New York-based AT&T to earn 1 cent a
share to 6 cents a share, with a mean forecast of 4 cents a share, according to
research firm Thomson Financial/First Call.
Including a previously announced charge to cut 10,000 jobs and other items,
AT&T had a net loss of $1.39 billion, or 39 cents a share, compared with a
loss of $1.64 billion, or 45 cents a share, a year before. Revenues fell 9.5 per
cent to $12.59 billion from $13.91 billion.
As expected, declining long-distance voice revenue eroded improvements in its
AT&T Broadband cable-TV unit and higher sales of data and Internet services
to businesses.
AT&T, the No. 1 US long-distance telephone and cable television company,
said it expects first-quarter earnings from continuing operations, excluding
one-time items, to be in the range of 2 cents a share to 5 cents a share. Total
first-quarter revenues should decline at a slightly accelerated pace, compared
with the fourth quarter of 2001, it said.
For the full year 2002, sales to business customers will decline by about
three per centage points more than the 2001 rate, while sales to residential
customers will decline in the mid-20 per cent range, AT&T said.
In 2002, AT&T Broadband, the cable television business, expects to offer
new services to subscribers, increase revenue, and aggressively manage
profitability. For the full year, the unit expects revenue growth to improve
from the restated pro forma 2001 level of $9.16 billion, with per centage growth
in the low to mid teens.
(C) Reuters Limited.