They are trying to get in on local phone sales, while keeping the Baby Bells out of long distance. They recently lost a rather surprising court decision to the Baby Bells which allows the BBs to enter the long distance market before they open up their local monopolies. The Feds though are siding with the long distance companies, so there's still a lot to be decided here. Teleport provides local telephone service in 28 states. Some analysts criticized the purchase saying that other long distance companies might stop doing business with Teleport.
Analysts rank it evenly between a hold and a buy.
They also own Conoco Oil. They will have a lot of the same concerns as the oil companies as their petroleum division is their biggest earner. Their price is up over the past year but flat since July. Most analysts rate DD a buy and rank them fairly high among diversified chemical companies. PS Yield LTGR PEG Market Cap.