AT&T; to Have Gain of $13 Billion on Spinoff

AT&T; Corp., the biggest U.S. long-distance telephone and cable-television operator, will have a $13-billion third-quarter gain related to the separation of its mobile-phone unit.

AT&T; Wireless Services Inc. was separated July 9 as part of the parent company’s plan to split into three companies with four stocks. The noncash adjustment will be classified as a “gain on the disposition of discontinued operations” in AT&T;’s income statement, the company said in a quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The gain represents the difference between the value of AT&T; Wireless shares at the date of the split and their value on AT&T;’s books, the company said. The company previously said it expected a gain of more than $10 billion, said Eileen Connolly, a spokeswoman for New York-based AT&T.;

Shares of AT&T; fell 4 cents to $19.87 on the NYSE. They have declined 17% in the last year.

AT&T; this quarter is expected to post earnings, excluding the mobile-phone unit, of 4 cents a share, the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call. In the year-earlier quarter, the company had profit from operations of $1.33 billion, or 35 cents a share, including the wireless operation.

Shares of Redmond, Wash.-based AT&T; Wireless fell 8 cents to $16.85 on the NYSE. They have fallen 43% since an initial share sale in April of last year and 1.7% since the spinoff.