AT&T Logs Wi-fi Positive aspects as It Preps WarnerMedia Cut up

The Dallas firm’s sale of its film-and-TV enterprise extends a rapid-fire collection of offers it launched in 2021 to wean itself off leisure. The corporate final 12 months closed the sale of a stake in DirecTV to private-equity firm

TPG,

ceding operational management of the unit within the course of. It additionally offered all the pay-TV firm’s operations in Latin America.

On Wednesday, AT&T projected general 2022 income will develop within the low single digits above final 12 months’s $153.2 billion benchmark, which excludes its already-divested pay-TV enterprise. This 12 months’s income goal assumes a full 12 months of WarnerMedia possession. AT&T plans to divest WarnerMedia earlier than then, although its shareholders will retain a 71% possession stake within the new firm, which will likely be referred to as Warner Bros. Discovery. The media division set a full-year income goal between $37 billion and $39 billion.

The telecom firm additionally forecast annual capital expenditures within the $20 billion vary with free money move within the $23 billion vary. AT&T expects to chop its annual dividend cost to between $8 billion and $9 billion after the separation of its media unit, down from the roughly $15 billion it paid out final 12 months.

Beneath strain from traders to point out progress on its strategic shift, AT&T had already introduced quarterly subscriber good points for its wi-fi telephone unit and HBO division. Shares of AT&T, which fell 14% in 2021, have gained 7.6% thus far this 12 months. The shares had been little modified early Wednesday.

After issuing preliminary outcomes earlier this month, AT&T on Wednesday reported a last web acquire of 884,000 postpaid telephone subscribers over the December quarter, main the wi-fi business.

T-Cellular US Inc.

stated it added roughly 844,000 of these subscribers over the identical interval.

Verizon

stated Tuesday it ended the quarter with a web acquire of 558,000 postpaid telephone connections.

The corporate beforehand reported that its HBO unit, which incorporates HBO Max, ended 2021 with 73.8 million subscribers world-wide. That determine topped the goal of 70 million to 73 million subscribers issued earlier within the 12 months. The HBO unit’s home subscriptions hit 46.8 million on the finish of the 12 months.

Within the December quarter, AT&T’s general revenue rose to $5.0 billion, or 69 cents a share, in contrast with a year-earlier lack of $13.89 billion, or $1.95 a share. A $15.5 billion accounting cost from the write-down of the telecom large’s DirecTV unit skewed the year-earlier outcome.

General income fell to $41 billion from $45.7 billion a 12 months earlier, reflecting the satellite-TV operations’ absence. Excluding the divestiture and different gadgets, AT&T stated it had adjusted earnings of 78 cents a share, topping Wall Road’s 76-cent forecast.

Write to Drew FitzGerald at andrew.fitzgerald@wsj.com