AT&T Reportedly in Discussion to Buy Lumen Consumer Fiber Business

New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors that some details don’t add up in a Bloomberg report saying AT&T is in talks to buy Lumen's consumer fiber business. The $5.5 billion price tag "looks too low," Chaplin said in a late Tuesday note to investors. That could mean Lumen wants to sell assets "from the central office to the home … but not the central office itself and not the fiber into the central office,” he said. Discussion of the deal comes as AT&T seeks to expand its fiber network, while it closes down some of its legacy copper lines (see 2502250066). Rival T-Mobile announced joint ventures last year to buy fiber providers Metronet (see 2407240020) and Lumos (see 2404250047).