T - AT&T Inc. - Page 5

i'm in at 25.88

are you kidding me, AT&T doesn't rely on the iPhone (the most over hyped phone for teeny boppers and adults wanting to be trendy). I mainly got in this for the divi exec date of next week. I myself have a blackberrry bold 9700 with AT&T and perfer it over an iPhone.

In my opinion, anyone who wanted an iphone would have already made the switch to AT&T just to get it. Mostly current VZ subscribers who were stuck in contracts will be going for the iphone at this point. It's not like AT&T subscribers are going to flock over to VZ.

VZ getting the iPhone is speculation ... i hear the phone may be introduced into the Chinese market which also has the same network VZ has.

i am gonna go through the numbers again but you would be suprised by how much at&t is leveraged to the iphone. i posted a big post a couple months back but cant find it now. dont know what thread it was in. all divisions of at&t are declining at double digit rates except for the wireless sector. then go into that number and almost all of the wireless profits are 3g. if you strip out that number at&t is operating at a massive loss. also every bit of growth they have is that sector. loosing iphone is a big deal. a lot of growth will be lost

I started a position at 25.94, not sure if I'll hold long and sell calls or flip it before the x-date. Watched it all day and actually bought in AH, I like the div and I'm sure it will hold.

Then along comes SIRI, which is a very clever fellow- leading me towards the- probably just flip it side. DECISIONS-DECISIONS, just when I thought I found a deal along comes reality kicking at my heels..

That's not entirely true. AT&T's data sector is growing and while their wireless sector remains the largest chunk of their revenue, Apple creating a new iPhone will not necessarily have a big hit on this.

Apple has firstly never even announced the phone is going to Verizon. Verizon is not the only CDMA network and Apple may have incentives to stay with AT&T. Second, I am absolutely positive that AT&T has not been stupid enough to believe that they can rely on the iPhone to continue to carry them for an indefinite amount of time. When AT&T finally does lose exclusivity or the iPhone is no longer the significantly dominant device, AT&T will have already acquired other hot new technologies to replace it. Does anyone actually believe that the largest telecom company in the world is largely dependent on a single gadget?

eh my thoughts of the effects on at&t will be longer term. it may not hurt them for a while. also they say at&t will be getting andriod so maybe they can make up for it. i am using google to try to find my post but cant. it took so long to go through that quarter report i just dont want to again.

when they reported the income the data sector was rolledinto the same number. most of their data growth was from u-verse.

main thing to worry about is that if at&t doesnt hold exclusivity they can loose a couple million iphone users pretty esily. they are higher priced and in newyork at&t is hated in a way i didnt even think was possible.

average monthly service revenue lost would be around 160m-250m+. its just something to remember while holding at&t.

q3 2009 compare to q3 2008 T grew by 1b in revenue and profit in the wireless sector. for the same period they lost and shrunk in every other sector.

"Service revenues are comprised of voice, data and other revenue. Service revenues increased $1.126b, or 10.0%, in the third quarter of 2009"

almost all of the 1.1b in profit growth was because of wireless data.
"Data revenue increases of $916m, or 33.6%, in the third quarter of 2009"
they give the iphone about 100% credit for the wireless data growth


the wire line segment is headed towareds a big problem. other segments are already in the red.
"Our wireline segment operating income decreased $824, or 30.1%, in the third quarter of 2009 and $2,765, or 31.3%, for the first nine months of 2009"

sure at&t will be just fine with out iphone exclusivity but it really is the only thing fueling their profit. strip out iphone and they are barely profitable. only good thing is, is that even though T would loose some iphone customers they will save a lot of money with lower cost of paying off aapl. the cost of activating an iphone will go down. its just that we all know there will be a lot of people leave at&t for a better 3g network.

they are struggling to get 3g to work while other companies like s and vz are hitting 4g.

I'm going to quickly address the bold first. This year, AT&T reaped in over $12 billion in net earnings. Profits generated from iPhone users is a single digit percentage of that number.

With new technologies, there are obviously going to be declining businesses in a dynamic industry. AT&T is not the only telecom company with a declining wireline sector and correct me if I am wrong but when comparing T and VZ, it is VZ who has the larger percentage of revenue tied into its wireline business. Likewise, with new smartphones popping out at such a rapid pace now, the market power of the iPhone will inevitably fall (exclusivity aside). I believe these factors are already largely factored in AT&T's stock valuation as evidence from their conservative P/E ratio. I also believe that these factors have already been discussed between AT&T's management and they will have many plans to drive future growth. Plans may include the continuing expansion of U-verse as well as aggressive campaigning to get their hands on the next hottest exclusive deals.

As for people leaving AT&T to join a superior network, this is simply unfounded. While there are certain areas where AT&T's network can truly be described as garbage, tests have been conducted that have proved that AT&T does have the greatest 3G coverage in the United States. The only reason certain areas receive bad speeds is because of the drag the iPhone has on the data network. If Verizon were to have had an exclusive deal to use the iPhone, their network may not have even been able to handle at all. Also, AT&T is looking to roll out 4G next year just like the other guys.

A $154B company didn't get their cuz of an iphone. The hype on that phone phone is almost over.

No but it sure as hell helped them solidify their position as number one. With a new Iphone coming out people will once again flock towards it. It is left to be seen if only T will carry it or if Verizon will get in on the action.

Oh please...if it wasn't the iPhone it would have been something else. Look at AT&T's historic earnings and dividend payouts. Rock solid and the details of a deal between it and a single gadget will not have any adverse effects save the expected short term pessimism.

Why the big drop today?

I think T has held up pretty well with the recent trend reversal! I don't know what you're talking about! hehe

IBM to buy AT&T's Sterling Commerce for $1.4 billion

On Monday May 24, 2010, 9:32 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp (NYSE:IBM - News) plans to buy Sterling Commerce from AT&T Inc (NYSE:T - News) for about $1.4 billion in cash, extending the technology behemoth's portfolio of business software.

IBM said Sterling will help simplify and automate the way organizations connect with customers, partners and suppliers. More than 18,000 global customers use Sterling Commerce systems and services, the companies said.

AT&T expects to record a one-time gain of about $750 million in the quarter the transaction closes.

After the deal closes in the second half of 2010, Sterling Commerce's 2,500 employees will be part of the WebSphere organization within IBM's Software Group.

SBC Communications bought Sterling Commerce in 2000 for $3.9 billion, throwing itself into the business-to-business e-commerce market. SBC acquired AT&T Corp in 2005, and changed its name to AT&T Inc.

Shares of IBM were down 1 cent at $125.41 in premarket trade on Monday. AT&T shares were down 7 cents at $24.78.

I saw that this morning, their shares are taking a beating this morning. down over 50 cents.

Yeah...bought for 3.9b and sold for 1.4b, what a loss.

Reminds me of my "buy low, sell lower" stock strategy...

Yea well, theirs that they also broke their 25 resistance level. The dividend must be around 7% now with the share price falling, could be interesting on that end, however they shares price have been pretty much stalled since 2008, and that wont change for the forseable future i would imagine.

T over $25 is a sweet sight.

Can't really figure out why it's down with the iPhone news. You would think huge iPhone sales = a boost in ATT's profits.

Actually Apple plans on selling the Iphone unlocked on its website the 3G and the 4G version, thats not a good thing for T, means people will be able to buy it unlocked and go with any carrier means indirectly they might lose their exclusivity.

Ya, but who in the hell is going to pay $599?