I was surprised that they came out this soon and announced. It's really just a token one, but there's room for it to increase.
If we fast forward two years, the biggest challenge for carriers in the industry is upgrading the technology in their networks.
If they demonstrate improving revenue growth, they could get $20 a share.
If they exceed estimates for this quarter, which I think they will, and raise guidance for the upcoming quarter, investors would be more favorably inclined to Microsoft.
If AT&T has a horrible quarter in terms of cash flow then their institutional investors might pressure them to accept the Comcast deal.
If that revenue stream goes away this would have a huge impact. Access actually generates positive cash flow. Excite would have a tough time sustaining operations going forward.
Long-distance is a growth business for Qwest but not their focus.
Microsoft would do whatever they can to keep AT&T from going to AOL.
This tracking stock phenomenon doesn't make sense. I wouldn't be surprised if they went down to $0.
What could drive upside is more significant price cuts, and it wouldn't surprise me if it happened after the spring of 2004.
These cable systems are in rural areas, so they potentially are not as profitable. AT&T is looking to unload them because their focus is not on rural cable markets.
SBC sounded like they were throwing in the towel. They were pretty downbeat.
They're up against the wall. If the bankers decide not to play ball, Qwest could be in bankruptcy later this year.
AT&T has been performing poorly all along and in a slowing economy we can expect that trend to continue.
If DT Telecom or NTT come in with an $80-a-share offer, management might have a tough time not accepting such a high offer price.
Comcast was very aggressive in highlighting how poorly run AT&T was. Comcast was very 'in your face' in terms of the first offer.
I am most surprised by the lack of competitive response by AT&T and WorldCom. If AT&T had lowered rates they would have stable revenue instead of double-digit declines.
An AOL counter-bid is not out of the question. The nice thing about a Cox deal is that it would be part of AOL and part of its revenue and cash flow .