Reply #15: AT&T Posts $7.1 Billion Loss for the 3Q [View All]

[UpInArms]

(that's BILLION with a "B")

http://www.forbes.com/work/feeds/ap/2004/10/21/ap1602223.html

AT&T Corp. swung to a third-quarter loss of $7.12 billion after recording huge charges related to the company's retreat from traditional telephone services, which has included at least 7,500 more job cuts and a writedown in the value of the company's long-distance network.

The loss reported Thursday amounted to $8.95 per share for the July-September period. The figures reflect $12.47 billion worth of charges as well as a resulting $4.38 billion tax benefit and an after-tax drop of $331 million in depreciation expenses resulting from the asset writedown.

Excluding the charges and benefits, AT&T would have reported a profit of $262 million, or 33 cents a share. In the same quarter last year, AT&T earned $418 million, or 53 cents a share.

Third-quarter revenues totaled $7.6 billion, down 11.7 percent from $8.65 billion a year earlier, as the long-distance business extended its multiyear decline. Broken down, AT&T Business Services revenues fell 10.4 percent to $5.65 billion and AT&T Consumer Revenues fell 15.2 percent to $1.98 billion.

AT&T, still the nation's largest long-distance company, had warned two weeks ago that it would be slashing the book value of its assets by about $11.4 billion now that its network is expected to carry far less consumer voice traffic.

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