Company may write down assets

NEW YORK -- AT&T Corp. said it may write down the value of some of its $43.8 billion in assets, intensifying speculation the nation's largest long-distance phone company is a takeover target.

Last month, the company said it would stop marketing its residential services. In its second-quarter report, filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, AT&T said that decision means it can review its assets for a possible write-down.

A write-down, which analysts estimate could be in the billions of dollars, would reflect that its assets have declined in value since the company invested billions of dollars in upgrading its network during the telecom boom. As prices for long-distance decrease, so does the value of a long-distance network.