AT&T withdraws from @Home board

AT&T today removed four of its six directors from the Excite@Home board, relinquishing control of the company to its minority interests.

@Home said AT&T irrevocably relinquished its right to appoint additional directors that would give it control of the board. In a separate announcement, @Home said it has voluntarily delisted itself from the Nasdaq.

AT&T is mired in a battle with the bankrupt ISP’s bondholders for the purchase of @Home’s network assets. AT&T has bid $307 million for the network components and has faced no higher bids in bankruptcy court. The amount bid is much less than @Home’s $1.1 billion in debt, and unsecured bondholders are trying to force AT&T to bid higher by shutting down the network.

Last week, lawyers representing the bondholders committee petitioned the court to reject recently negotiated contracts with @Home’s cable partners and shut down network access entirely to more than 3 million cable broadband customers.

Despite AT&T withdrawing direct control from @Home, both companies said the action would not impact their negotiations.

--Kevin Fitchard, staff writer