At&T Inc

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AT&T vs Verizon

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AT&T to pay $67 billion for BellSouth
Deal for regional phone giant would reshape telecom field
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By Jeffry Bartash & Jonathan Burton, MarketWatch
Last Update: 1:31 PM ET Mar 6, 2006

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - For AT&T Inc. Chief Executive Ed Whitacre, reconstituting Ma Bell wasn't enough.
Within months of combining SBC Communications with AT&T and rebranding it with the most storied name in telecommunications history, Whitacre has again upped the ante.
AT&T on Sunday said it agreed to buy smaller rival BellSouth Corp. for $67 billion in stock in a deal that would cement AT&T's new position as the largest U.S. phone company as it takes on rival giants providing voice, data and cable services.
The proposed transaction - which is likely to come under intense scrutiny by federal regulators and consumer advocates - will create a behemoth with 70 million local phone customers, 10 million broadband users and more than 300,000 employees.
Company executives said at least 10,000 jobs will be cut through attrition.
A combined AT&T-BellSouth would pose a stiffer challenge to Verizon Communications Inc. in the market for local, long-distance and Internet services and possibly help beat back a challenge from cable giants such as Comcast that are entering the phone business.
"This gives them a bigger platform," said Nancy Havens, founder and president of Havens Advisors, a New York hedge fund.
The acquisition would give AT&T control of Cingular Wireless, the nation's biggest wireless operator with more than 54 million customers. Wireless is the fastest-growing part of the communications business and critical to the success of U.S. phone companies.
AT&T, which owns 60% of Cingular, has long desired BellSouth's 40% stake.
San Antonio-based AT&T, which was formed in November after SBC closed its acquisition of AT&T, operates in 13 states, concentrating in California, Texas and the Midwest. AT&T already is the nation's biggest long-distance provider and caters to multinational corporations around the globe.
By adding Atlanta-based BellSouth,which dominates local phone service in nine Southeastern states, AT&T Inc. would make itself the most formidable company in the communications industry.
Recreating Ma Bell
Under terms of the deal announced Sunday, AT&T would exchange 1.325 shares for each share of BellSouth, an 18% premium over BellSouth's closing price on Friday of $31.46. That would give each BellSouth share a value of $37.09.

In many ways, the former SBC has recreated the phone company once known affectionately as Ma Bell -- the longtime monopoly broken up in 1984 into one big long-distance carrier and seven regional local-phone operators.
Exploiting a more lenient regulatory climate, SBC embarked on a series of once-unthinkable mergers to transform itself from the smallest of the so-called Baby Bells into the mother of all communications empires.
Chart of T
The combined company would have about 315,000 employees -- though executives said up to 10,000 positions would be eliminated after the merger -- and combined revenue of $121 billion, based on Wall Street's estimate of annual 2006 sales.
AT&T said Monday that most of the job reductions would involve "attrition" - leaving open jobs unfilled after workers retire or leave the company.
Chart of BLS
Over the next three years, AT&T would also buy back 400 million shares to ease the dilutive effect on stockholders. By combining operations and eliminating duplicate staff, the merged company could eventually save up to $18 billion, AT&T said.
Based on those projections, AT&T said the merger would be "neutral" to earnings per share in 2007, adjusted for onetime costs and benefits, and that it would add to adjusted profits by 2008.

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Sur la graphge, ATT est intéressante, elle se situe juste sous une résistance importante.
Elle résiste bien à l'effet d'annonce, après avoir été malmenée en ouverture.



Chez Verizon, la tendance Ct est similaire, elle entre en consolidation.

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Verizon Focuses on Buying Vodafone's Wireless Stake (Update1)

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Verizon Communications Inc., the second-largest U.S. telephone company, is focused on acquiring the 45 percent of Verizon Wireless that it doesn't own from partner Vodafone Group Plc.

``It's a priority for us,'' Verizon spokesman Peter Thonis said in an e-mail today. He said Verizon's business plan is unchanged after AT&T Inc. agreed to buy BellSouth Corp. for $67 billion in stock yesterday.

Verizon wants to gain complete control of its wireless unit, the second-largest in the U.S., to take advantage of its fastest- growing business. AT&T's purchase of BellSouth gives AT&T full ownership of Cingular Wireless LLC, the nation's biggest mobile- phone company. AT&T plans to drop the Cingular brand and lower costs by selling all its services under the AT&T name.

Vodafone's 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless may be worth 20.5 billion pounds ($36 billion), Morgan Stanley analyst Nick Delfas wrote in a note today. Newbury, England-based Vodafone has an option to sell a portion of the stake to Verizon for as much as $20 billion in $10 billion pieces this year and in 2007.

Verizon Chief Executive Officer Ivan Seidenberg is working to integrate MCI Inc.'s operations after the $8.44 billion purchase in January, to divest its telephone directories business and to acquire the rest of its wireless venture, Thonis said. Some analysts are predicting the AT&T-BellSouth deal will push New York-based Verizon to buy Qwest Communications International Inc. or Alltel Corp. Thonis wouldn't comment on the speculation.

Shares of Verizon rose 7 cents to $33.65 in trading before the regular opening of the New York Stock Exchange. Vodafone rose 6.25 pence to 127.75 pence in London.

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ATT semble vouloir repartir chercher les 30$, avec la cassure du canal de consolidation, à valider en clôture.

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ATT revient sur son sommet :