Are there challenges? Absolutely. But in aggregate, this is a very strong and valuable company.
We can no longer pretend that business is immune from the rising tide of environmental or social challenges or that companies can create value in isolation from the communities of which they are a part.
The value of a company is the sum of the problems you solve.
Clearly as you move to being a public company, probably even more than growth, there is a huge value based on predictability.
In market valuation, Yahoo is worth about as much Walt Disney and the News Corporation combined.
Indian IT corporations have made work in the U.S. much more efficient by enhancing their productivity and quality of work. We have helped to add sufficient value to the corporations in the U.S.
If guys try to make a bigger company for the sake of size, they don't create value in most cases.
This merger is a logical next step that creates substantial value for customers and stockholders of both AT&T and BellSouth. It will benefit customers through new services and expanded service capabilities.
The pending merger with XM will offer unprecedented choice for consumers and create tremendous value for stockholders.
But the minute we went public on the stock market, which is how our wealth was created, it was no longer how many people you employed, it was how much you were worth and how much your company was worth.
I believe that the mutual fund industry's biggest shortcoming is too much focus on the momentary price of a stock - an illusion - and too little focus on the intrinsic value of the corporation - the ultimate reality. I'm comforted by the fact that Warren Buffett feels the same way.
