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Strategies & Market Trends : ahhaha's ahs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ahhaha who wrote (418)	10/24/2000 10:44:43 PM
From: Ahda	Respond to of 24758

That is what i fear costs are to high in silicon valley. Aol is negotiating property outside of the valley smart move my opinion. Expertise can't afford to move to the area. Too costly lots of problems stemming from a wish for a normal life minus high debt load and companies with wish for high profits something has to give. Do I say we love you AG. You put us in this stew now how do you get us out of it?

To: ahhaha who wrote (418)	10/25/2000 11:44:06 AM
From: Ahda	Respond to of 24758

SHAREHOLDERS TO OWN FOUR COMPANIES Over the past few months, AT&T has weighed several options to boost its stock and to distinguish its fast-growing data, Internet and broadband cable television units from its struggling consumer long-distance business. Under the plan, which AT&T expects to complete in 2002, shareholders ultimately would own stock in four businesses. AT&T's wireless and broadband cable television businesses will trade as independent common stocks. AT&T's shrinking consumer telephone business will become a tracking stock, while the principal AT&T entity will be its business services unit. The plan will create separate ``companies that don't have to compete internally for capital or attention. Shareowners should get the full value of their investment because investors will be better able to evaluate the financial performance of each AT&T company and compare it to its competitors,'' Armstrong said. ABN Amro analyst Kevin Roe said the move would ``make it easier for the Street to value the company, but I still believe operational results are more important.'' Operationally, AT&T has fallen short. Its business services unit stumbled, lost key customers and failed to meet growth expectations. The decline of the consumer business was fast and furious, while the wireless and cable television operations failed to keep up with the performance of their peers, analysts said. The new structure doesn't help the operational problems, it ''just rearranges the deck chairs on the Titanic,'' said one industry executive who declined to be named. NEW STRUCTURE, SAME BRANDNAME The principal company, AT&T Business, which provides communications and networking to corporate customers, will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the company's existing ``T'' symbol. It will also be the legal owner of the AT&T brand, which it will license to the other companies. AT&T Business will be the parent company of the AT&T Consumer business, which will trade as a tracking stock. Despite the separation, the four separate entities will continue to collaborate. AT&T Business, for example, will offer the wireless company's services and use AT&T Broadband's cable systems in serving some customers. The Wireless, Broadband and Consumer companies will purchase network services from AT&T Business under long-term commercial contracts. AT&T said it will set a new capital structure and dividend policy for each of the companies. The combined dividend of the new companies will be ``substantially less'' than AT&T's current dividend, the company said. DETAILS OF RESTRUCTURING PLAN In the first phase of the restructuring, AT&T will offer shareowners the chance to exchange AT&T common stock for AT&T Wireless tracking stock, which trades under the symbol ``AWE.'' About 15 percent of the economic interest in AT&T Wireless is already in public hands. AT&T will exchange at least $10 billion of its economic interest in AWE. The company then plans to distribute its remaining interest in AT&T Wireless to AT&T shareowners later in 2001. AT&T will convert the AWE tracking stock into asset-based AT&T Wireless common stock. AT&T Wireless is expected to be an independent, publicly-held company next summer. Meanwhile, AT&T said it would create a new consumer tracking stock that would mirror the performance of its residential long distance and WorldNet Internet access businesses. It plans to distribute all of the tracking stock to AT&T shareowners in the third quarter of 2001. For the broadband unit, which includes the cable television assets AT&T acquired in recent years for $100 billion, AT&T plans a two-step process to meet various tax rules. It plans to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) for stock to track the performance of its Broadband unit during the summer of 2001. Then, it will recapitalize the Broadband tracking stock to a common stock within 12 months of the IPO. The broadband unit would assume AT&T's interest in high speed Internet service provider ExciteAtHome Corp.(NasdaqNM:ATHM - news) Do I have the opportunity to vote on this or is this, like it or lump it. Are there any law firms that are public VBG?