AT&T hit by falling sales

NEWS AT&T, one of the world's largest telcos, is blaming a decline in its long-distance telephony business for falling sales. The US giant, which announced second quarter figures last night, saw revenues drop three per cent to $13.33bn. The company was also forced to record a $1.1bn write-down on internet telephony investment. Earlier this month AT&T was subject to a $40bn offer for its cable television division from rival Comcast. The offer was rejected despite the continuing poor showing of this side of operations. According to yesterday's results, profit margins for the cable business were down two per cent.