BellSouth fourth-quarter income falls

Local phone giant BellSouth reported a fourth-quarter net income of $792 million, or 42 cents a share, on revenue of $7.64 billion. That compares with income of $1.12 billion, or 59 cents a share, and revenue of $7.31 billion for the same quarter a year ago. Excluding charges, BellSouth posted earnings of 63 cents a share in the quarter vs. analyst expectations of 60 cents a share as surveyed by First Call.

BellSouth also posted $1.21 billion in data revenue for the quarter, an increase of about 25 percent from a year ago. The company reduced its work force by about 16 percent over the year to 87,875 and expects earnings per share to grow between 7 percent and 9 percent and operating revenue to increase between 5 percent and 7 percent in 2002.