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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Thursday, December 21, 2000

AT&T shares sink after dividend cut

NEW YORK -- AT&T Corp. shares fell nearly 10 percent today after the largest U.S. long-distance telephone and cable-TV provider said it will cut its dividend by 83 percent and slashed fourth-quarter sales and profit forecasts. Shares closed down $1.88 at $17.06 today on the New York Stock Exchange. The company released revised forecasts and the size of the dividend cut at the close of regular trading yesterday. At its monthly meeting, AT&T's board said the company will pay investors 3.75 cents a share each quarter, or 15 cents annually, starting next year. AT&T had paid a dividend of 22 cents a share each quarter, or 88 cents annually, amounting to about $3.38 billion in dividend payments every year.

Lucent warns of loss, plans restructuring

MURRAY HILL, N.J. -- Lucent Technologies Inc. said today it will lose more money than expected in the first quarter due to lower spending by phone companies. It also restated fourth-quarter sales for a second time and said it will cut $1 billion in costs and an unspecified number of jobs.

The biggest maker of phone equipment expects first-quarter revenue to fall 20 percent from a year ago. That's more than double the 7 percent decline it was expecting until it pulled the forecast a month ago.

Shares of Lucent closed down $1.31 at $14.19 today on the New York Stock Exchange.

30-year rates fall to 7.17 percent

WASHINGTON -- The average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages this week fell to 7.17 percent, down from 7.42 percent last week. Fifteen-year mortgages declined to 6.84 percent, down from 7.11 percent. One-year adjustable-rate mortgages were 7.02 percent, off from 7.05 percent.

In other news . . .

Cheap Tickets Inc. said today it has hired the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency to manage its $20 million-a-year advertising account. The Honolulu-based retailer of discount airline tickets and other travel said it plans to roll out an aggressive national multimedia campaign in the first half of 2001 to attract customers to its call centers, Web site and ticket offices.