The lower income is another piece of bad news for AT&T, the biggest US long-distance and cable TV company. AT&T has struggled amid price wars for long-distance and other services and plans to split itself into four parts to restart growth.
AT&T said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late on Thursday that it would post a first-quarter impairment charge of about $740 million to $780 million because of ExciteAtHome.
The charge will reduce first-quarter income by a range of $280 million to $320 million, AT&T said. Analysts expect profits of 5 cents a share on revenues of $17.3 billion, according to research firm Thomson Financial/First Call.
