Aggressive consumerism is so rampant and so deeply entrenched in California that Pacific Telesis Group was always going to have many more problems with local regulators than any of its siblings among the AT&T orphans, and so it has proved. The San Francisco phone company has had to restate its first quarter 1987 financial results downward, due to a court ruling in connection with a recent California Public Utilities Commission decision to reduce Pacific Bell’s 1987 revenue. Pacific Telesis said the California Supreme Court yesterday refused to grant a stay of the earlier Commission attrition decision, which reduced Pacific Bell’s 1987 rates by $191m yearly. Pacific Telesis said the revised earnings for the 1987 first quarter are $265.9m, or 62 cents a share, on revenue of $2,200m, compared with net of $273.9m, or 64 cents, on revenue of $2,220m a year earlier. The company last month reported the figures as net income of $293.3m, or 68 cents a share, on revenue of $2,240m as reported April 16. Pacific Bell is of course by far Pacific Telesis’ largest subsidiary – it operates only in California and sparsely-populated Nevada. Pacific Telesis chief executive Donald Guinn commented We are disappointed that the court did not grant our request for a stay, adding that the company would be petitioning the court for a writ of review of the Commission’s decisions, and would do whatever was possible to mitigate the impact of the action.
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