Wall St. Cheers Phone Deal; AT&T to Cut 10,000 More Jobs

[BR_Parkway]

What an absolutely incredible headline.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/06/business/06cnd-phone.html?hp&ex=1141707600&en=c96cd3de59a97d79&ei=5094&partner=homepage

AT&T's proposed $67 billion purchase of BellSouth was received warmly by Wall Street today, and even critics who expressed concerns about the acquisition's impact on competition acknowledged that the deal should easily win regulatory approval.

The deal will go a long way toward recreating the original AT&T before it was split up in 1984 to settle an antitrust case, and it will consolidate AT&T's control over Cingular Wireless, the nation's largest cellphone company, and give AT&T greater influence over changes reshaping the telecommunications industry.

Moreover, AT&T expects to reduce costs with the BellSouth merger. The company said today that it would cut 10,000 jobs once the deal is complete. These cuts would come in addition to the 26,000 positions it had previously said it would eliminate from 2006 to 2008 as part of the previous merger of AT&T and SBC Communications. AT&T and BellSouth employ a combined total of 371,000 workers and have $120 billion in sales.

<snip>

Consumer advocates said the deal should heighten worries about the increasing control that a few large telephone and cable television companies exert over Internet access. That concern has been stoked by recent suggestions by phone and cable executives that they would like to charge the providers of Internet content, and possibly also consumers, for the network capacity they use in addition to the subscription charges paid by individuals for unlimited access to the Internet.

[Career Prole]

1. And the dopes who think "401k owner" = "investor class"

will forget about the lost jobs thinking about the pennies added to their portfolios.
Just like the real investor class wants 'em to do...

[unblock]

2. excellent! fewer jobs, fewer choices, more expensive phone service!

but golly gee, the extra $2/share ought to cover that!

NOT!

[MoonRiver]

3. Dow down 63 points today. That's cheering?

:shrug:

[marmar]

4. People lose jobs (people who can buy these products, I might add) ...

and the market rejoices. If this is capitalism, I'm ready for a new socioeconomic system.

[The2ndWheel]

8. That's nice

The Market isn't ready though, and only He counts.

[izzie]

5. It just made me depressed to read the on line NYTimes. front pg.

And Wall Street cheers.

[lapfog_1]

6. Reminds me of the scene from Terminator 2

Right after the Terminator blows the "liquid metal" T2 into a thousands of shards... but then the shards start melting with the heat of blast furnace area... and start flowing together again... and a feeling of dread grabs the audience...

This is not good for the consumer, not good for the internet, and definitely not good for the employees of the various Baby Bells.

[PVK]

7. Hey, deep southerners--GET THE PICTURE? n/t

[The2ndWheel]

9. This is why the fight goes on, and on, and on, and on

Over, and over, and over, and over again.

Power never loses, it only changes shape. That terminator example above is a good one.