AT&T Wireless Evaluates Acquisition Bids

AT&T Wireless confirmed market reports that it is currently entertaining acquisition bids from several industry players. The company postponed its annual analyst meeting and said there can be no assurance that a transaction will occur.

Separately, AT&T Wireless posted Q4 services revenue of $3.904 billion, up 4.4% from the year-ago quarter. For the fourth quarter, net loss per share (EPS), was ($0.03) per share.


ARPU for Q4 was $58.70, down 2.2% from the same period last year. Steady ARPU was supported by data revenues, international toll, and higher regulatory fees, while offset by continued pricing pressure and less breakage from wireless minute buckets.


Churn for the year was 2.6%, matching 2002's full year level and reflecting the company's long-term strategy of improving the profitability of the overall subscriber base. Fourth quarter churn was 3.3%, driven by a high number of contract expirations of the prior year's holiday contract signings, systems-related impacts on customer care, and LNP.


Net subscriber additions were 128,000 for Q4 and 1.060 million for the year, bringing the company's total consolidated customer base at the end of 2003 to 22.0 million, an increase of 5.4% over 2002. http://www.attwireless.com