Familiar Ring: Landlines Tie Down Some Bells

[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dionne Searcey dionne.searcey@wsj.com]
Trying to expand their businesses, telephone companies were making multibillion-dollar acquisitions last winter. Verizon, for instance, picked up a big long-distance company. AT&T Inc., then called SBC Communications, did the same. Sprint bought Nextel Communications and became Sprint Nextel. Alltel acquired Western Wireless. The moves, though, haven't always been a ringing-off-the-hook success for shareholders in the Bell companies. "Obviously, the analysts are concerned about the spending the Bells are doing on fiber and the investors are listening," said David Ahl, who owns shares of MCI Inc., which Verizon is acquiring. "The wireless business has a higher growth rate, and that's why people like it," added Mr. Ahl.
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