NEW YORK, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Long-distance telephone and cable-television leader AT&T Corp. 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 its fourth quarter net income excluding one-time items dropped to 5 cents a share from 24 cents a share in the year-earlier quarter.
Analysts on Wall Street had expected AT&T to post a net income 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 like adjustments involving certain investments and contractual obligations, AT&T said it posted 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 during the same period a year ago.
Revenues fell 6 percent to $12.59 billion from $13.91 billion.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA, totaled $3.5 billion for the quarter, AT&T said.
"Our results reflect a business managing through a difficult economic and industry-wide climate," said AT&T Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael Armstrong.
"In the face of these pressures, we remain focused on controlling costs and growing revenue in our growth businesses," Armstrong said.
He also called the company's decision to spin off its broadband operations and combine them with Comcast a "big step" and said that AT&T plans to issue an AT&T Consumer tracking stock "later this year."
Looking ahead, the company forecast "a slight acceleration in the rate of revenue decline for the first quarter" on a sequential basis.
AT&T, the nation's largest 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 percentage points more than the 2001 rate, while sales to residential customers will decline in the mid-20 percent 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 percentage growth in the low to mid teens.
