NEWARK, N.J. - November 3, 2000 - IDT Corporation (NASDAQ: IDTC) today announced it has recently strengthened its strategic alliance with AT&T through the purchase by IDT of approximately 2.2 million shares of AT&T (NYSE: T) common stock. The shares were secured in open market transactions for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $50 million.
"We're making this purchase both because we think it's a great investment and as a personal vote of confidence in Mike Armstrong and his team, who we view as real partners," said Howard Jonas, Chairman and CEO of IDT. "We believe in the long-run, Mr. Armstrong and the forward-looking strategies he is implementing will be vindicated, to the benefit of AT&T, its shareholders and its industry partners."
IDT is a leading facilities-based multinational carrier that offers a broad range of telecommunications services to wholesale and retail consumers worldwide. Through its own telecommunications backbone and network infrastructure, IDT provides its customers with integrated and competitively priced international and domestic long distance, pre-paid calling cards, Internet access and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service.
The Company's Ventures division is developing several innovative telecom and Broadband related businesses. IDT's experience with new ventures, includes the creation and initial public offering of the Internet Telephone Company, NET2PHONE (NASDAQ:NTOP - news). IDT Technology Ventures supports IDT in selecting and incubating new technology ventures.
Except for historical information, all of the expectations and assumptions contained in the foregoing are forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, involving risks and uncertainties. These statements refer to our plans to implement our growth strategy, improve our financial performance, expand our infrastructure, develop new products and services, expand our customer base and enter international markets. The forward-looking statements also include our expectations concerning factors affecting the markets for our products, including the demand for long distance telecommunications, and Internet access services. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results that we anticipate. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those risks discussed in this release. In addition to the factors specifically noted in the forward looking statements, other important factors that could result in those differences include (a) general economic conditions in the telecommunications and Internet markets, including inflation, recession, interest rates, and other economic factors; (b) casualty to or other disruption of our facilities and operations; (c) those discussed in our Quarterly Report on Form 10Q for the period ended April 30, 2000; and (d) other factors that generally affect the business of telecommunications, Internet and other communications companies. We assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from the results anticipated in the forward-looking statements.
Norman Rosenberg, CFA
VP, Finance & Capital Markets Manager
973-438-4001
Mary Jennings
Investor Relations VP
973-438-3113
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