P.M. BRIEFING : AT&T; Reports Big Gains in ‘89, Best Year Since Bell Breakup

NEW YORK — AT&T; today reported sharply higher earnings for the 1989 fourth quarter and year, calling it the best annual performance for the telephone giant since the breakup of the old Ma Bell monopoly six years ago.

American Telephone & Telegraph Co. said the improved results partly reflected the $6.7-billion restructuring charge taken in 1988 to modernize and streamline the nation’s biggest long-distance phone company, which drastically lowered earnings that year.

AT&T; said it earned $705 million, or 65 cents a share, in the three months ended Dec. 31, as against a loss of $3.342 billion, or the equivalent of $3.11 a share, a year earlier. Quarterly revenues totaled $9.30 billion versus $9.21 billion.

For all of 1989, the company earned $2.70 billion, or $2.50 a share, on revenues of $36.11 billion. In 1988 the company reported a loss of $1.67 billion, or $1.55 a share, on revenues of $35.21 billion.

Excluding the 1988 restructuring charge, AT&T;’s 1988 results would have been $593 million, or 55 cents a share for the fourth quarter and $2.27 billion, or $2.11 a share for the year. When compared with those results, the company’s 1989 fourth quarter and yearly earnings both rose 19%.

“It was a year of excellent earnings--our strongest since divestiture six years ago,” said Chairman Robert E. Allen. “It was a year in which AT&T; became a trimmer, more responsive and more aggressive competitor.”