AT&T Unconcerned on FCC Media Bureau Decision to Stop Shot Clock on AT&T/DirecTV
AT&T isn't concerned about the FCC Media Bureau decision Wednesday to stop the shot clock on its review of the telco's plan to buy DirecTV (see 1410220058), AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said Wednesday on a call with analysts.…
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“We’re still optimistic about the transaction,” Stephens said. “The stopping of the clock is not an uncommon or rare experience and it has something to do with other issues than the benefit of our deal or the merits of our deal.” AT&T still anticipates approval of the deal in the “originally announced one year kind of time frame,” he said. The companies unveiled the deal in May. AT&T earnings came in at 63 cents per share in Q3, a penny below analyst estimates, the carrier said. Net income fell 21 percent from the same quarter last year on higher operating expenses. Revenue was $32.9 billion in the quarter, a 2.5 percent increase over the previous year. Wireless made up 56 percent of total revenue, AT&T said. Headed into the AWS-3 auction, AT&T reported $3.5 billion in free cash flow. The company added 785,000 postpaid subscribers, more than twice as many as in Q3 last year. Connected device net adds were 1,275,000, which includes more than 500,000 connected cars, AT&T said (http://soc.att.com/1t70QuJ).