Firm36 schreef op 17 januari 2013 18:19:
By Joseph B. White
AT&T Inc. chief executive Randall Stephenson is again sending out signals that he’s got money burning a hole in his pocket.
AT&T shares have been wobbling between negative and positive in early trading today after the Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Stephenson wants to go shopping for acquisitions overseas – particularly in Europe. The share moves aren’t decisive, but there’s no clear sign that Mr. Stephenson’s investors are over the moon about the prospects of another round of M & A excitement, just two years after regulators hung up on Mr. Stephenson’s $39 billion proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA.
A note from Bernstein Research says AT&T’s real problem is that wireless growth in the U.S. market is poised to slow or contract, but that buying a European carrier such as the Netherlands’ Royal KPN NV is no sure path to growth.
The Bernstein analysts write:
If growth in the U.S. looks poised to stall, growth in Europe already has. To be sure, valuations in Europe are more attractive than the inflated ones telcos enjoy in the U.S. But part of the valuation premium the telcos have enjoyed is precisely because of their solely domestic focus. Global diversification is unlikely to be greeted warmly by U.S. investors, in our view. With the WSJ pointing to a possible deal “before the end of the year,” and with CEO Randall Stephenson suggesting in an interview in Texas Monthly that diversification overseas is ‘inevitable,” deal overhang can now be added to the litany of risks to U.S. telecom investors. This risk may well weigh on AT&T shares for some time.