AT&T Trips Up in Phone, Pay-TV Services as It Chases Media Dream
- Subscriber figures were well below estimates; shares drop 5.5%
- Rivals Verizon, T-Mobile far outpacing AT&T in customer gains
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AT&T Inc., in the middle of a high-stakes effort to turn itself into a media and entertainment juggernaut, finds itself playing catch-up in its bread-and-butter businesses of wireless and pay-TV services.
Two key measures, U.S. wireless and pay-TV subscribers, came in well below Wall Street predictions in the fourth quarter. That led to a shortfall in overall sales relative to analysts’ estimates. The stock fell as much as 5.5 percent Wednesday, the biggest intraday drop in three months.