AT&T Dividends and Medical Write Off

AT&T (T) Ma Bell announced a $1 Billion write off because of the new health bill. Sounds like a hysterical number. A billion dollar write off does not come out of the wood work. Sure Ma Bell will say we could not say anything until we knew what the legislation was going to say. So therefore disclosure laws are not challenged.

Given that many companies are starting to declare write off’s the SEC is looking at massive passive aggressive behaviour. At what point did the accountant say “Hey we are going to have to write off something” That is the point where Ma Bell and other should have said something.

In the mean time Ma Bell declared her usual dividend. The dividend yield is around 6.4% which will sooth investor fears.

Amazing that both pieces of news came out more or less at the same time