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AT&T to take $1B charge
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January 4, 2002: 3:03 p.m. ET
Company says fourth-quarter charge is related to elimination of 10,000 jobs.
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - AT&T said Friday it will take a $1 billion charge in the fourth quarter to cover the cost of cutting about 10,000 jobs through the end of this year.
AT&T (T: down $0.30 to $18.34, Research, Estimates) said the pre-tax charge will pay for severance packages and other costs related to cutting jobs in administration and its business and consumer operations.
The company, which agreed last month to sell its cable operations to Comcast Corp. for $47 billion, said 5,100 workers already have left AT&T's payroll and an additional 5,000 workers, who already have been notified, are expected to leave this year.
New York-based AT&T said in October it would take a fourth-quarter charge as it cut costs, but it did not quantify the charge at that time. It warned at the time that the soft economy and stiff competition would hurt results in core telephone operations through 2002.
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Analysts surveyed by First Call expect the company to earn 4 cents a share in the fourth quarter on revenue of about $9.5 billion.
AT&T had 125,000 employees at the start of 2001. Company officials were not immediately available to comment on the expected size of its work force at the end of 2002.
Once AT&T completes the sale of its cable unit to Comcast (CMCSK: down $0.76 to $34.93, Research, Estimates), its remaining long-distance businesses will have about $44.2 billion in annual sales. 
from staff and wire reports
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