AT&T; Reports 8,700 Managers Have Left

AT&T; Corp. said 8,700 managers left the company in June under its early-retirement offer. That’s about 56% of the 15,500 managers who plan to leave the nation’s largest phone company by 1999 under the offer announced in January. The response was well above the 10,000 to 11,000 that AT&T; had expected. The company, AT&T;, under new Chief Executive C. Michael Armstrong, is trying to cut costs while it simultaneously invests billions of dollars in new cable TV and Internet services, which might not be profitable for years. The job cuts will help AT&T; reach its goal of trimming its selling, general and administrative expenses to 22% of sales by the end of 1999 from 29% last year. AT&T; is acquiring Tele-Communications Inc., the second-largest U.S. cable TV company, in a bid to provide voice, data and video services. Under the $43.9-billion deal announced in June, AT&T; said it will also spend about $5.7 billion to upgrade TCI’s cable networks to provide more services. Shares of Basking Ridge, N.J.-based AT&T; fell 31 cents to close at $56.31.