On Feb. 1, 2005, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its ratings for San Antonio, Texas-based diversified telecommunications provider SBC Communications Inc. (SBC), including the 'A' long-term and 'A-1' short-term corporate credit ratings. At the same time, Standard&Poor's placed its ratings of Bedminster, N.J.-based long-distance carrier AT&T Corp. (AT&T), including the 'BB+' corporate credit rating, on CreditWatch with positive implications. These actions follow the announced pending acquisition of AT&T by SBC. As of Dec. 31, 2004, SBC had about $27 billion of debt outstanding and AT&T had about $6 billion of debt, net of about $3.7 billion of cash. Consideration for the AT&T acquisition is valued at about $22 billion, consisting of $15 billion in SBC shares, a
