NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) July 15, 2013—Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its 'A-' rating and stable outlook on Dallas-based diversified telecommunications provider AT&T Inc. are not immediately affected by its agreement to acquire San Diego-based Leap Wireless International Inc. for about $4 billion, which includes $1.2 billion in cash and Leap's net debt of around $2.8 billion. Although we expect AT&T's pro forma leverage to increase slightly to around 3.0x from 2.9x as of March 31, 2013, we don't consider this increase large enough to warrant a change in our financial risk assessment, which we currently view as "intermediate". Leverage could remain around 3x for the next couple of years, which is at the high end
