WASHINGTON-MCI Communications Corp. reported a net loss of $391 million, or 56 cents per share, for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with net income of $303 million, or 44 cents per share, for the corresponding quarter the year before.
MCI attributed the loss to a reduction in pre-tax earnings of $752 million, or 66 cents per share, for employee and customer-retention programs, restructuring initiatives in parts of its long-distance, local and IT businesses and technology upgrades to improve performance of its data centers.
Net income for the year totaled $2 million, compared with net income of $1.2 billion for 1996. The decrease in income reflects the impact of $1.3 billion in pre-tax actions and increased operating expenses, said MCI.
Revenues for the quarter were up 7.5 percent to $5.1 billion, compared with fourth quarter 1996 revenues of $4.8 billion. Revenues for the year totaled $19.7 billion, 6.3 percent more than revenues of $18.5 billion during 1996.
The company’s wireless business reported a net loss of $29 million for the fourth quarter, compared with a net loss of $17 million for same quarter of 1996. Net loss for the year in wireless business was $61 million, compared with a net loss of $43 million during 1996.
Wireless revenues for the quarter were down slightly to $76 million, compared with $80 million during fourth quarter 1996. Wireless revenues for the year equaled $314 million, compared with revenues of $347 million during 1996.
MCI said it had 441,000 wireless resale customers and 176,000 paging customers.
MCI last year announced a merger agreement with WorldCom Inc., which is scheduled to be completed by mid-year.
