Grant Gross
Senior Writer

SBC net income dips, but revenues increase

News
Jul 21, 20052 mins

SBC Thursday reported net income of $1 billion for the second quarter of 2005, down 14.4% from the second quarter of 2004.

The company, in the midst of a $16 billion acquisition of telecom rival AT&T, posted operating revenue of $10.3 billion, up 1.3% from the same quarter in 2004. This is the company’s fifth straight quarter of revenue growth, officials noted.

SBC reported earnings per diluted share of $0.30, including $0.13 per share of one-time charges for costs incurred by Cingular Wireless, co-owned by SBC and BellSouth, and termination costs for agreements SBC had with telecom wholesale carrier WilTel. SBC posted earnings per diluted share of $0.34 in the second quarter of 2004.

Without the one-time charges, SBC posted earnings per share of $0.43. Analysts expected earnings of $0.37 a share, according to Thomson First Call.

SBC’s wireline revenue totaled $9.4 billion for the quarter, which ended June 30, up 1.6% from $9.2 billion in the second quarter of 2004. Wireline business revenues increased 4.8%, while consumer revenues grew 2.6%.

Cingular’s second-quarter revenue was $8.6 billion, up 5.4% versus pro forma revenue of $8.2 billion during the second quarter of 2004. The pro forma results include Cingular’s acquisition of AT&T Wireless.

Cingular’s operating income was $504 million, down from $671 million for the second quarter of 2004. Excluding one-time charges, including $445 million of noncash expenses that were part of Cingular’s merger with AT&T Wireless, second-quarter operating income was $1.2 billion, up from $705 million in the first quarter of 2005.

Grant Gross

Grant Gross, a senior writer at CIO, is a long-time IT journalist who has focused on AI, enterprise technology, and tech policy. He previously served as Washington, D.C., correspondent and later senior editor at IDG News Service. Earlier in his career, he was managing editor at Linux.com and news editor at tech careers site Techies.com. As a tech policy expert, he has appeared on C-SPAN and the giant NTN24 Spanish-language cable news network. In the distant past, he worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. A finalist for Best Range of Work by a Single Author for both the Eddie Awards and the Neal Awards, Grant was recently recognized with an ASBPE Regional Silver award for his article “Agentic AI: Decisive, operational AI arrives in business.”

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