OK, what year and month will AT&T shrink down to the point where someone scoops it up at salvage prices?
Bonus question: Will they keep the AT&T name, or will it be so tarnished that they throw it away?
11 replies (most recent on top)
T will go "belly up" first. No company will buy any portion of T if they are forced to acquire the debt. $134B, O-U-C-H! That's Billion with a B!
It is not a profitable move until some or most of the debt is discharged, probably in a bankruptcy of some kind. The fiber and the spectrum have real value, but the copper and regulatory/union obligations are still very unattractive.
Sears was too big to fail.
GE was too big to fail.
Worldcom was too big to fail.
I'd love to see AT&T scooped up and Stankey and his ilk of a "leadership team" fired and escorted out of the building and told to never set foot on an AT&T property again.
The name and logo of AT&T is so tarnished by Stephenson and Stankey they's have to rename it something else and completely rebrand it.
AT&T is the textbook case on how NOT to run a company. It should be studied in business schools across the country, about failed leadership, horrible investments, etc.
2027 & they’ll be bought off piecemeal by multiple companies.
When your annual revenue is $120B, there is no bail out. You just need to restructure your business and reduce spending. We know the quickest way to do that!!
It will happen just before the Stink hits his mandatory retirement age so the POS can collect his most golden of parachutes.
@swn+1sKTo1rN, great point. This might be a government bailout, “too big to fail” situation. In my very humble opinion, I offer my prediction based upon the current Altman Z and Z2 scores; 2026, June.
AT&T (T) Altman Z-Score : 0.74 (As of May. 28, 2024)
AT&T (T) Altman Z2-Score : 0.58 (As of May. 28, 2024)
GuruFocus. Altman Z and Z2 Score for AT&T
https://www.gurufocus.com/term/zscore/T
https://www.gurufocus.com/term/z2score/T
You can find the formula to calculate the Altman Z scores on the GuruFocus website or many other websites. Use the Yahoo Finance aggregated Financial Statement data or the latest 10-Q/10-K SEC filings on the AT&T Investor Relations webpage. Plug the numbers into an Excel spreadsheet. Have Fun!
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/T?.tsrc=fin-srch
https://investors.att.com/
The 2024 Q2 Free Cash Flow numbers will be interesting.
MacroTrends. AT&T Free Cash Flow 2010-2024
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/T/at-t/free-cash-flow
Side Note: Anyone know the current (latest 10-K) Pension Benefit Funded status?
Feds would never let it happen.
Never happen. What you can bet on is, when will we have 110K employees…
June 2028
No, they dump the name and logo as they are symbols of failure.