AT&T survives the loss of T-Mobile bid with growth to contest Verizon
COSTS from AT&T’s failed multi-billion dollar bid for T-Mobile dragged down fourth quarter profit at the American telecoms giant, which reported a loss of $6.68bn (£4.25bn) despite an overall annual growth.
Fourth quarter operating loss was $9bn, down from a $2.1bn gain a year earlier.
However, revenues in the final months of the year rose 3.6 per cent to $32.5bn, contributing to a two per cent increased annual revenue of $126.7bn.
Eyes have been on AT&T since its market nemesis Verizon Communications published its year-end finances on Tuesday.
While AT&T gained 717,000 new wireless subscribers in the final quarter – its largest increase in over a year – this pales in contrast to Verizon’s 1.2m postpaid additions.
However, AT&T increased its smartphone sales by 50 per cent to 9.4m – trumping Verizon’s 7.7m – of which 7.6m were iPhones, almost double Verizon’s 4.2m sales of the Apple favourite.