BellSouth updates severance offer to 1,300 managers

<p>BellSouth Corp. said Monday that it was updating a voluntary severance offer to 1,300 managers to bring it in line with a plan that will be part of its proposed $67 billion merger with AT&T Inc.</p><p>BellSouth announced in December it was cutting 1,500 management jobs, or 2.4 percent of its total work force, because of competition from cable providers.</p><p>Under the plan contained in a Securities and Exchange Commmission filing on Monday, the severance offer is enhanced and an involuntary component of the previous offer is eliminated, BellSouth spokesman Joe Chandler said.</p><p>"The offer that we have now is almost identical to the offer that was associated with separation that will occur after the merger," Chandler said.</p><p>This one is entirely voluntary, he said, which led to a reduction in the estimate of the total number of jobs to be eliminated.</p><p>Chandler said about 60 management employees already had agreed to accept the offer made in December, and that BellSouth is in the process of determining the type of package they would receive.</p><p>In its SEC filing, BellSouth estimated an after-tax charge of $100 million related to the workforce reduction, with about $85 million recorded in the second quarter.</p><p>AT&T said after its proposed acquisition of BellSouth was announced earlier this month that it expects to cut 10,000 jobs from the combined 320,000 it would have after the merger, but that the goal should be achieved through normal employee turnover.</p>

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