Excite@Home Deal Trims AT&T; Earnings

AT&T; Corp. assumed voting control of Excite@Home Corp. earlier than expected and said earnings will be lower than forecast for the third quarter and full year. The telecom giant said it will begin consolidating Excite at Home’s results in September, rather than October, resulting in third-quarter earnings of 35 cents to 38 cents a share. Previous forecasts were 40 cents to 43 cents a share. On the same basis, AT&T; restated first- and second-quarter earnings at 48 cents and 53 cents, respectively. Full-year 2000 earnings will be 1 to 2 cents below the range of $1.75 to $1.80 a share reported in late July, it said. Excite@Home is the largest provider of fast Internet access over cable-TV lines. AT&T; agreed in March to pay as much as $3 billion for the Excite stakes owned by cable-TV providers Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications Inc. The transaction gives AT&T; about 25% of the economic interest in Excite and 74% of the voting interest, up from the 24% economic interest and 56% voting interest AT&T; had previously. New York-based AT&T; closed off 81 cents at $30.25 on the NYSE, while Redwood City, Calif.-based Excite closed up 13 cents at $13.94 on Nasdaq.