Stamford’s Frontier Communications said its fourth-quarter profits fell 79 percent, despite a revenue boost from the nearly 527,000 Connecticut customers it acquired in a $2 billion deal with AT&T in October.
For the three months ended Dec. 31, the telecom provider recorded $13.9 million in profits, or 1 cent per share. That was down from $67.8 million, or 7 cents, in the prior-year quarter.
Revenue grew by $150 million, to $1.33 billion, thanks to the new Connecticut operation’s adding nearly $216 million in revenue. But expenses — many of them related to the AT&T acquisition — increased by $238 million.
As of Oct. 24, Frontier said 478,000 of its Connecticut customers were in the residential segment, while 49,000 were in the business segment.
The added customers helped Frontier grow its total number of residential and business customers to 3.5 million as of Dec. 31.
However, without the Connecticut additions, Frontier said it would have lost nearly 9,000 customers.
Frontier said it has achieved annualized cost synergies of $165 million so far on the Connecticut acquisition. The company has said it can achieve $200 million by the third year of ownership.
