Armstrong: Never saw Comcast offer

For all of Comcast President Brian Roberts' contentions that AT&T rejected his approaches, AT&T Chairman Mike Armstrong said he never got a detailed bid for the telco's cable division until everyone else did.

"Comcast never gave us a concrete proposal," Armstrong said in a speech to the Boston Chamber of Commerce Wednesday. "At least not until a two-page letter showed up on my home fax machine Sunday evening - about the same time that it appeared on fax machines of newspapers around the country."

Nevertheless, Armstrong said the company is giving "serious consideration" to Comcast's offer to buy its cable systems. "It recognizes at least some of the value that we've created in AT&T Broadband," Armstrong said. "The question is whether it recognizes the right value. But before we can take a position on their offer, we have to make sure that we truly understand it. And then we need to compare it to our other options. Foremost among those is the value we will create by growing our business and improving our margins." - John Higgins