AT&T has reported a 23% decline in net profit to $2.4 billion for the fourth quarter 2008, on revenue up 2.4% at $31.08 billion. It said earnings were hit by a $450m subsidy for 1.9 million iPhone activations during the quarter.
Operating income during the quarter declined 11% to $4.9 billion, while diluted EPS declined 20% to $0.41. Cash from operating activities for the quarter totaled $5.5 billion. Wireless revenue grew 13.2% to $12.86 billion, while wireline revenue declined 3.3% to $17.07 billion. Advertising and publishing revenue fell 10% to $1.33 billion, and other revenue declined 15% to $486m.
The company said there was a net gain of 2.1 million wireless subscribers, and a 51.2% increase in wireless data revenue. It said wireline IP data revenue increased 14.2% driven by rapid expansion in AT&T U-verse services and growth in VPNs and managed internet services.
For the year, net income increased 8% to $12.87 billion on revenue up 4.3% at $124 billion. Operating income increased 13% to $23 billion, while diluted EPS increased 11.3% to $2.16. During the year the company repurchased 164.2m of its shares for $6.1 billion.
Randall Stephenson, chairman and chief executive at AT&T, said: Despite the economic environment, we grew revenues in 2008, and I expect 2009 will be another year of overall revenue growth. The success of our iPhone 3G launch has driven wireless growth and helped redefine the wireless data space. We completed the world’s largest deployment of the fastestiInternet backbone technology across our US network.
