AT&T Inc. dropped the most in almost five years in New York trading after Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson said slowing economic growth led to ``softness'' in the home-phone and Internet businesses.
The shares fell 4.6 percent, helping to spark a broader decline in U.S. stocks, after Stephenson said San Antonio-based AT&T is disconnecting more phone and high-speed Internet customers who failed to pay their bills.
``We're really experiencing softness on the consumer side of the house from the economy,'' Stephenson said today at an investor conference in Phoenix.
The disconnections in the residential-phone business, which accounts for about a fifth of sales, have put more pressure on Stephenson, who became CEO in June. Last year, he relied on the popularity of wireless handsets such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone to fuel growth, helping to make up for losses of home-phone customers.
AT&T fell $1.87 to $39.16 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The drop was the largest since March 2003. The shares have declined 5.8 percent in 2008 after climbing 70 percent in the previous two years as the company reaped savings from $100 billion in mergers.
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