AT&T Loses 12.7 Billion in ONE QUARTER!

sdw2001sdw2001
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I have to say that things are looking bad for the market. If the market ends lower this year, it will be the first time it has finished the year lower three years in a row since 1939-41.



Lucent also announced it has lost 8 billion and will lay off 7,000 or employees. Good God.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    so my two choices for a phone company are:



    1. Qwest. already going bankrupt, now being investigated for financial fraud, and completely incompetent.



    2. AT&T. evil telcom monopoly that's losing money hand over fist while still charging through the nose for their services.



    w00t!
  • Reply 2 of 9
    cablecable Posts: 76member
    Not the same since the breakup of AT&T, eh? <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />



    Question: If all the Long Distance Carriers go under, will we even have a Long Distance Service anymore?
  • Reply 3 of 9
    _ alliance __ alliance _ Posts: 2,070member
    2 words: cell phone
  • Reply 4 of 9
    spaceman_spiffspaceman_spiff Posts: 1,242member
    Not to minimize anything but that loss was due to a write down in the value of their cable business. They are effectively saying that they overpaid by $13 billion for all the cable assets they acquired in recent years. This clears their books for the sale of the unit to Comcast. That loss isn't because their operations are bleeding that kind of red ink.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    undotwaundotwa Posts: 97member
    The telecommunications bubble is going to burst harder than the dot com bubble...
  • Reply 6 of 9
    spaceman_spiffspaceman_spiff Posts: 1,242member
    [quote]Originally posted by undotwa:

    <strong>The telecommunications bubble is going to burst harder than the dot com bubble...</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Why? First of all, the telecom bubble has already been busted for some time now. Secondly, the big problem facing this sector is an enormous overhang of debt. AT&T, however, is in very good shape debtwise. They've already spun off their wireless assets and now they'll realize a fair piece of change as a result of the Comcast sale. What this "loss" means is AT&T saying, in effect, that the pair of shoes that they bought for $60 and they've been telling everyone were worth $60 are really only worth $47. That's a fairly orderly adjustment of asset value compared to what's happened at their rival, Worldcom. AT&T still has problems with their core business but they are in very good position now to pick over Worldcom's carcass and buy some businesses for pennies on the dollar.



    Finally, the biggest reason why the telecom bubble is nothing like the dot com bubble is we are talking about real businesses here. Telecom is cash flow city. The dot com bubble was almost 100% about speculative investing. The "telecosm" (to borrow George Guilder's word) is something that people actually need, use and are willing to pay money for it?s use. Basically, when you have a big revenue stream the way to make money is to manage the margins. Telecommunications companies don?t have to worry too much about cash flow. They just have to manage their businesses better.



    [ 07-24-2002: Message edited by: spaceman_spiff ]</p>
  • Reply 7 of 9
    eskimoeskimo Posts: 474member
    Motorola's $24 billion loss sort of puts AT&T's to shame
  • Reply 8 of 9
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,425member
    Good Lawdy that's alot of money.



    This and now Killer Asteroids..my day has been ruined <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
  • Reply 9 of 9
    jet powersjet powers Posts: 288member
    AT&T will have gone full circle.....



    After the Big Breakup, AT&T got into a lot of areas besides long distance: Cable, Wireless, Local Phone service.



    They spun off AT&T Wireless a year ago, and now they are selling off Cable (which was their primary vehicle for local service).



    Now, it'll just be long distance.



    Once the telelcom industry stabilizes, a Baby Bell will buy AT&T, bribe the FCC, and emerge as a one stop local and LD player.



    Ah, well. Signs of change, I guess.



    ting5
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