AT & amp;T WIRELESS Company considers merger offers

AT & amp;T Wireless says it has solved a glitch that caused the loss of customers.
NEW YORK (AP) -- AT & amp;T Wireless put itself up for sale Thursday, confirming it has received numerous merger offers that it plans to entertain.
The nation's third-largest cell phone operator would not disclose the names of any bidders, which according to sources at both AT & amp;T Wireless and its suitors include Cingular Wireless, NTT Docomo of Japan, Vodafone of Britain and Nextel Communications.
However, the company did allow that some of the overtures have come from overseas.
"There's been a lot of interest from a lot of parties. They have strategic imperatives, domestically as well as globally," John Zeglis, chairman and chief executive of AT & amp;T Wireless, said in an interview.
Costly glitch
Amid the speculation, AT & amp;T Wireless, based in Redmond, Wash., released its fourth-quarter earnings report a week early, confirming fears it had been hit hard by a glitch in a new software system that prevented new customer activations and irked existing subscribers for most of November.
"It cost us several hundred thousand net customer additions," said Zeglis. And, while the system was fixed by December, independent retailers selling AT & amp;T Wireless service may still be steering potential customers to rivals, leery of lingering problems.
"What's the hangover from this? We need to win back the hearts and minds of those distributors."
The company also acknowledged that it has lost more customers than it had gained under the new federal rules that took effect in late November allowing cell phone users to change carriers without losing their phone numbers. However, no specific numbers were disclosed.
Based on the AT & amp;T Wireless' share price, which has surged more than 35 percent in less than two weeks amid takeover speculation, the company has a market value of more than $29 billion. On Thursday, the stock retreated 43 cents to close at $10.56 on the New York Stock Exchange. Any buyer would also need to assume long-term net debt of about $6.1 billion.