"OGE applauds the 'total' divestiture decision.
"The deal will make Verizon the largest wireless carrier in the US, with 80 million total subscribers prior to any divestitures," he said.
According to some maths from analyst Benedict Evans, Google's total outlay may have been closer to $7.15B than $12B — the divestitures, retention of patents and the sale price would cut the plain monetary loss down further to under $2B.
Selling the Pan American stake brings the total amount raised to $21 billion, approaching the $30 billion target for divestitures the company plans to make to cover an estimated $40 billion in spill-related costs.
"True Innovation," by Jon Gertner (Sunday Review, Feb. 26), is a wonderful paean to the accomplishments of Bell Labs, but before we try to bring back those glory days, we must ask ourselves: Was there more total innovation when the AT&T monopoly financed the labs, or was there more after the January 1984 divestiture?
Total profits for the period rose slightly, to $7.4 billion from $7.3 billion, buoyed by refining and marketing profits from divestiture of various assets including from the sale of the Coryton refinery in Britain to Switzerlands Petroplus Holdings and the U.S. West Texas pipeline, to Occidental Petroleum.
The company said its planned divestitures contributed $2.1 billion in revenue in fiscal 2003, or 6% of the company's $36.8 billion in total revenue.
That divestiture was completed in February.
Net debt should total about 13 billion euros at the end of the year, the company said, but should tumble to 5 billion euros by the end of 2004 largely as a result of further divestitures, including the entertainment assets.
