NEW YORK, Jan 26 (AFP) - SBC Communications said Wednesday its fourth-quarter profit slid 16.7 percent on one-time merger costs, but revenue rose on the strength of data and high-speed Internet sales.
In related news, the company said it expects to eliminate 7,000 jobs in 2005, or 4.4 percent of its 163,000 person work force. SBC said the cuts will be made "primarily" through attrition, which means leaving jobs unfilled when workers retire or leave the company.
The telecom giant based in San Antonio, Texas, said earnings in the October-December quarter were impacted by the cost of merger Cingular -- in which it holds a 60 percent stake -- with ATT Wireless, and by pension costs.
The net profit amounted to 754 million dollars. But without one-time costs, the figure was 1.1 billion dollars, or 34 cents a share, a penny better than the average forecast on Wall Street.
Revenues grew 3.1 percent from the same period in 2003 to 10.3 billion dollars.
The company's adjusted net profit for 2004 was 4.7 billion dollars, virtually flat from 2003, with revenues up 0.7 percent to 40.7 billion dollars.
"Over the past year, we have built a stronger SBC, and we have begun 2005 with very good momentum," said Edward Whitacre, chairman and chief executive officer.
"We have doubled the size of our wireless business, deepened our bundle penetration, and surpassed our 2004 growth targets in both broadband and long distance. In addition, we have moved quickly to gain solid traction in the enterprise space. We have taken costs out of our operations, with additional cost-reduction projects under way."
Whitacre said SBC was are building "an advanced, IP-based network to power a new generation of integrated digital video, data and voice services, which we plan to launch under the brand SBC U-verse."
"We expect to achieve substantial progress in all of these areas in the year ahead," Whitacre said. "As we do, we also expect to deliver solid financial results, including continued revenue growth, improved margins and solid cash flow, which gives us the flexibility to invest in our business, retire debt and return value directly to our stockholders."
01/26/2005 17:11 GMT - AFP