France Télécom reported a loss of $7.3 billion for 2001 today in a stark admission that it had overpaid for a pan-European expansion in the giddy years of the telecommunications boom. ... [FT] spent tens of billions of dollars in the last two years on acquisitions and on wireless licenses ... quadrupling the company's debt in the process. Since those deals, however, the share prices of telecommunications companies have slid sharply. ... [An anaylst said,] "I'm not bullish on the stock. We still need more details." | 
