AT&T in talks to buy Lumen's consumer fiber unit, Bloomberg News reports

(Reuters) -AT&T is in talks to acquire Lumen Technologies' consumer fiber operations, in a deal that could value the unit at more than $5.5 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Shares of Lumen were down more than 14% after the report.

The terms, which are not yet finalized, could change or the talks might still collapse, according to the report.

Both Lumen and AT&T declined to comment on Reuters requests.

The potential move to offload the fiber business, which provides high-speed internet services to residential customers, comes as Lumen is doubling down on the AI boom to power its near-term growth, while grappling with a rapid decline of its legacy business.

Lumen kicked off a process to sell its consumer fiber operations, Reuters reported in December.

The fiber-optic cable provider has over 1,700 wire centers across its total network, with consumer fiber available in about 400 of them.

U.S. telecom giant AT&T has been investing in its high-speed fiber internet offerings to help drive faster subscriber and revenue growth. Earlier this month, it had forecast first-quarter adjusted profit in line with analysts' estimate.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru and Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Alan Barona and Vijay Kishore)