AT&T CEO sees consumer softness, shares plunge
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AT&T Inc  Chief Executive Randall  Stephenson said on Tuesday the phone company was experiencing  softness in its consumer business, sending its shares sharply  lower in late-day trading.
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Shares in the telecommunications equipment maker fell today to their lowest level after the company slashed its forecast for full-year revenue growth.
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NEW YORK  - AT&T Wireless Services Inc.  said on Tuesday its third-quarter profit declined as customers spent less per month, offsetting a rise in net new customers.
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U.S. stocks dropped sharply on Tuesday after Bloomberg reported that AT&T  sees softness in its consumer business, sending shares of the phone company tumbling more than 6 percent and raising more fears about recession.
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(InfoWorld) - Concerns about a spending slowdown continue to make IT investors nervous. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index closed Thursday at 2601.06, down from the 2700 level two months ago. The faltering U.S. housing sector, widespread mortgage payment failures, and related worries about the credit market have depressed share prices since the middle of the third quarter. IT companies, although not hit as hard as businesses in other sectors, have not been immune to the turmoil. A tightening of credit is often expected to dampen business and consumer spending. SoÂ Alcatel-Lucent's Thursday warning about the quarterÂ and the rest of the year struck a nerve, several weeks in advance of quarterly results. The company said it expects to break even on an operating basis in the quarter, and cut its 2007 revenue forecast. It said revenue for the year would be flat or slightly up, at constant exchange rates. Previously, it said that revenue would be up about 5 percent for the year. It was the third time this year the company cut its projections. Its share price dropped $0.88 to close at $9.16 Thursday. Alcatel-Lucent's announcement hinted at what many market observers have been fearing: slowing purchases by North American customers. "Alcatel-Lucent is now seeing a change in capital spending with those (North American) customers in 2007, compared to what it had anticipated," the company said. The company said it still expects ongoing cost savings in the wake of the merger of Alcatel and Lucent, but that did not quiet concerns about the overall market. "Merging may have made sense, but it does not change the marketplace. Demand is demand and that does not change because of mergers," said telecom analyst Jeff Kagan in an e-mail report. A slowdown in demand would make competition in the tough telecom market even more fierce. Earlier this week Alcatel-Lucent rival LM Ericsson said it was gaining market share in Europe and Asia. Ericsson shares rose $0.36 Thursday to close at $36.59. Ericsson's claims notwithstanding, U.S. and European vendors are getting hit with increasing competition from Chinese vendors such as Huawei Technologies and ZTE, which are steadily expanding their product portfolios. Not all tech-sector news this week was grim, however. The notebook market continues to experience explosive growth, according to a report released earlier this week by market research company DisplaySearch. The nine biggest notebook companies saw double-digit growth during the second quarter, while the market, measured by units shipped, grew by more than 24 percent, DisplaySearch said. Although those figures were generated before the third-quarter turmoil, the firm raised its estimate from 97.5 million notebooks shipping in 2007 to 103 million. The true impact of economic turmoil on IT will not be clear until the end of the year. For now, IT investors will try to read the tea leaves, in the form of quarterly results that will start to trickle in next over the next few weeks. Â
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The telecom's results can't quite connect with Wall Street's expectations.
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Markets were rattled after the chief executive of AT&T suggested a weaker economy was forcing consumers to scale back spending.
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US stocks suffered a late afternoon plunge on Tuesday as downbeat news from AT&T and more trouble in the housing market raised fresh fears over the health of the US economy.
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AT&T  posted stronger-than-expected mobile growth on Thursday and affirmed its 2008 outlook, but its shares fell as much as 3.4 percent amid persistent worries about the U.S. economy.
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AT&#38;T Chief David Dorman says he expects VoIP to be a $2 billion-a-year business, small change for his company.
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AT&amp;T Corp. (TN: Quote, Profile, Research) will cut another 7,400 jobs and reduce the value of its assets by $11.4 billion, spurred by its retreat from traditional consumer
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Shares of Apple Inc  fell 4 percent on Tuesday after AT&T Inc  issued initial subscriber numbers for customers of Apple's iPhone that were below analyst estimates.
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The top executive at General Motors  Corp  said on Tuesday that the automaker was watching the  downturn in the U.S. housing market closely and blamed the  softness there for weakness in vehicle sales.
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WASHINGTON  - AT&T Corp. on Thursday reported a $7.1 billion third-quarter loss due to an $11.4 billion writedown of its assets after its retreat from consumer services and other restructuring charges.
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The chairman says investors might do better if the carrier shuts down. How surprising.
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AT&amp;T Corp. (TN: Quote, Profile, Research) , the No. 3 US telephone company, on Thursday reported a $7.1 billion third-quarter loss due to $12.
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Best Buy Co Inc  Chief  Executive Brad Anderson said on Tuesday that he saw signs of a  tougher retail climate and the company would feel the strain if  its customers did.