AT&T posts $6.7 billion Q4 loss largely due to failure of T-Mobile deal
In comparison to a $1.09 billion profit in the fourth quarter a year back, AT&T has posted a mammoth $6.7 billion fourth-quarter loss this time round, largely due to the breakup fees resulting from the failure of its proposed T-Mobile acquisition.
While the analysts had expected AT&T to report a fourth-quarter profit of 43 cents per share during the quarter, the company's profit - after discounting the charges that it had to undertake because of the $4 billion breakup fee - stood at 42 cents per share. The profit for the same quarter a year earlier was 55 cents per share.
However, an all-time-high iPhone sales and a flurry of new subscribers helped AT&T witness a 4 percent increase in quarterly revenue to $32.5 billion, from the year-before figures of $31.4 billion. Analysts had estimated that AT&T would report $31.95 billion in revenue during the mentioned quarter.
With potential buyers turning up in big numbers to purchase the latest iPhone model - the iPhone 4S - and also a `free' older iPhone version with a two-year contract, a record 7.6 million units of the iPhone were sold by AT&T during the fourth quarter. In all, AT&T sold as many as 9.4 million smartphones.
Noting that it was the "blowout holiday season" which led to the robust sales, Randall L. Stephenson - AT&T's chairman and CEO - said during a conference call with analysts and investors: "In a year when competitors began selling the iPhone, we outsold them in every single quarter."
