Fierce competition in the US television and video market.
The US telecom group AT&T made a billion-dollar loss in the fourth quarter because of tough competition on the US television and video market. Because the group reorganized its video business into its own division and assesses the chances in the home market significantly worse, AT&T had to make 15.5 billion dollars (12.8 billion euros) in value adjustments in this segment alone, as the company did in Dallas on Wednesday ( State of Texas) announced.
The bottom line was a net loss of $ 13.9 billion in the fourth quarter, compared to a profit of $ 2.4 billion in the same quarter last year.
In day-to-day business, however, things went a little better than expected. In the fourth quarter, the profit attributable to one share, adjusted for one-off effects, fell by 14 cents to 75 cents and sales fell by 2.4 percent to 45.7 billion US dollars. However, both values were above analyst expectations.
AT&T is now cautiously optimistic about 2021. In the current year, adjusted earnings per share should be around the previous year's level. The board of directors also wants to increase revenues by a good one percent.
The corona pandemic was largely responsible for the decline in operational business. For example, the revenues from the TV and cinema business as well as the mobile communications revenues have declined due to the lower travel activities of AT&T customers. Share of sales in Latin America was particularly strong.
