AT&T Corp, a much less interesting company now that all but Long Lines and McCaw Cellular Communications Corp, plus a bit of network systems integration and services, are gone, reports that first-quarter profits fell 17% to $1.13bn; it blamed competition in long-distance services and the cost of investments in new areas of business. The 1.5% revenue rise was driven by growth in local telephone service and other initiatives, business long- distance services and wireless services, partially offset by declines in financial services and consumer longdistance revenues. Long-distance calling volume increased by 6.7% but revenues rose only 0.6% to $11.51bn. Hiring of customer support staff for marketing of new services and wireless operations raised the head-count to 134,000, a 3,600 net rise. AT&T expects second quarter earnings to be slightly lower than its first quarter, adjusted for one-off items, but to remain on track for the 1997 target set by the firm to deliver $3.45 to $3.75 a share.
