AT&T earned $207 million despite 8 percent revenue fall in third quarter

AT&T Corp. eked out third-quarter net earnings of $207 million and beat Wall Street expectations Tuesday despite an 8 percent drop in revenue that largely resulted from continuing weakness in the long-distance

Tuesday, October 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6


AT&T Corp. eked out third-quarter net earnings of $207 million and beat Wall Street expectations Tuesday despite an 8 percent drop in revenue that largely resulted from continuing weakness in the long-distance market.

In the three months that ended Sept. 30, AT&T's earnings amounted to 5 cents a share, on revenue of $12 billion.

In the comparable quarter last year, AT&T posted earnings of $11.3 billion, or $3.13 a share, on revenue of $13 billion, but the profits at the time were hugely inflated by AT&T's spinoff of its wireless business. Taking only continuing operations into account, AT&T's comparable figure in the year-ago quarter was a loss of 69 cents per share.

Excluding one-time events this quarter, AT&T said its continuing operations earned 6 cents a share, beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of 5 cents, according to Thomson First Call. Revenue was slightly higher than expected.

In early trading on the New York Stock Exchange, AT&T shares were down 23 cents, nearly 2 percent, at $12.30.

Despite what AT&T called a ``continued decline'' in long-distance, the company said its sales of network-managing services to businesses are growing. The company based in Bedminster, N.J., also benefited significantly from a $40 million pretax gain in the third quarter from the sale of its old headquarters in Basking Ridge, N.J.

In the first nine months of the year, AT&T posted a net loss of $13.6 billion on revenue of $36 billion. In the comparable period of 2001, AT&T earned $11.3 billion on revenue of $39.8 billion.
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