This summary is based on the second quarter fiscal 2007 earnings call conducted by AT&T Inc. (T: chart) on July 24, 2007.
Executives:
Richard Dietz - Investor Relations
Richard G. Lindner - Chief Financial Officer and Senior Executive Vice President
Key Investors Issues
- Revenues increased 87% from a year ago to $29.5 billion.
- Net income increased from $1.8 billion in 2006 to $2.9 billion.
- Earnings per share increased marginally to 47 cents from 46 cents.
- Wireless subscribers increased by 1.5 million to reach 63.7 million in the quarter.
- Share buyback worth $10 billion was completed in early July. Additional 125 million shares are to be repurchased during the year
Second Quarter Highlights
- Revenues grew 86.7% to $29.5 billion, from $15.8 billion in the year-earlier quarter.
- Regional business revenues grew by 4.5%, driven by both voice and data services.
- Revenues from SME businesses grew with more than 6%.
- Operating expenses were $24.5 billion, up from $13.2 billion in 2006.
Net Income increased from $1.8 billion in 2006 to $2.9 billion reflecting improved
revenue trends combined with solid execution to realize merger synergies.
- Earning per share amounted to 47 cents versus 46 cents in 2006 benefiting from impacts related to tax settlements and monetization of non-strategic assets.
- Cash flow from operations totaled $10.4 billion up from $4.7 billion in 2006.
- Sale of non strategic assets realized over $500 million.
More than $11 billion of cash was returned to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.
- Dividends paid amounted to $2.2 billion.
- Announced an agreement to acquire Dobson Communications Corporation, with 1.7 million subscribers.
Second Quarter Performance by Segment
Wireline revenues increased 24.6% to $17.99 billion from $14.44 billion.
- Operating expenses grew 19.8% to $14.9 billion;
- Net Income rose 54.5% to $3.1 billion from $2.01 billion in June 2006.
Wireless revenues were up 12.7% to $10.4 billion from $9.2 billion in June 2006.
- Net income increased 57.1% to $1.55 billion.
- Data accounts for 17% of total wireless service revenues.
Advertising and Publishing revenues were 61% up to $1.48 billion.
- Net income fell by 12.6% from $484 million to $423 million.
Merger integration savings of $1.9 billion realized on BellSouth integration.
- BellSouth mass market long distance traffic migrated to the AT&T network ahead of schedule.
- Rebranding efforts are on track and should be completed in the third quarter.
- Subscriber growth strengthened with 1.5 million net adds, up 22% from the first quarter.
- Total ARPU grew 3.6%.
iPhone was launched in June with Apple resulting in 146,000 activations with over 40% being new customers.
The management sees strong growth across all product categories.
Product launches include:
- Video Share, to nearly 160 3G markets.
- Samsung a717 and a727, both of which support Video Share product.
- A North American exclusive with the BlackBerry Curve.
Migration of TDMA post-paid customers to GSM is progressing well with 1.3 million subscribers remaining on TDMA down from 2.4 million six months earlier.