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To: Mary Baker who wrote (9027)7/1/1999 2:35:00 AM
From: RTev  Respond to of 28311
 
I am flummoxed here. AT&T owns 50% of Bresnan...and doesn't AT&T have some part of At Home thru prior mergers?

Yes, but AT&T (as a partner in it) is selling its stake in Bresnan to Charter. I think we're starting to see the consolidation that folks have been predicting. This is the second time in a month that a cable company in which AT&T owned a non-controlling interest was sold to Charter. It seems like AT&T is greasing the regulatory skids for the MediaOne purchase by getting rid of smaller systems.

From an ATHM perspective, a sale like this seems somewhat negative since it means another system falling from their domain, but it's a small enough system relative to the ATHM universe that it's not a great loss.

Lord only knows what kinds of side agreements are happening along the way but my guess is that AT&T comes closer with each of these sales to becoming the exclusive phone service provider on Charter systems.



To: Mary Baker who wrote (9027)7/1/1999 3:35:00 AM
From: PatrickMark  Respond to of 28311
 
"Grace...I am flummoxed here. AT&T owns 50% of Bresnan...and doesn't AT&T have some part of At Home thru prior mergers? And now Paul Allen owns something that AT&T owns..."

JMVHO, but I think in the months to come, there's going to be so much dealing and territory-swapping going on that the average investor won't be able to keep up (try as we may). The upside of this is that AT&T, Time Warner & Comcast recognize Charter as one of the big boys and are reconciled to dealing as opposed to squeezing. With the proven foresight and negotiating capabilities of VV, I'm confident that we're in good hands.

PM



To: Mary Baker who wrote (9027)7/1/1999 1:13:00 PM
From: GraceZ  Respond to of 28311
 
Mary- now Paul Allen owns something that AT&T owns This is all coming about because of all the wheeling and dealing AT&T did to get the deal done with MediaOne. If you recall they were in a bidding war with Comcast. There was all kinds of talk of Comcast getting AOL or MSFT or PA to help them up the ante for their bid for MediaOne. AT&T made a lot of deals and unruffled a lot of feathers. They agreed to swap assets and sell assets with Comcast and Charter so that these guys could consolidate their operations. I know here in Baltimore we have TCI (AT&T) in the city of Baltimore, but it is completely surrounded by Comcast, creating orphaned systems. The city will go to Comcast and TCI will get some of Comcasts properties.
AT&T is trying very hard to head off any kind of regulatory action, local or federal. If there is a strong viable competitor that they can point to (Charter & HSAC, RoadRunner), then they can justify their claims that they don't have a monopoly on cable internet.
Having their properties in contingence is important to rolling out the needed upgrades and the necessary fiber optical backbone.