AMERICAN TOWER CORP /MA/

Included in our analysis of our results of operations are discussions regarding earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and accretion, as adjusted (“Adjusted EBITDA”), Funds From Operations, as defined by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (“Nareit FFO”) attributable to American Tower Corporation common stockholders, Adjusted Funds From Operations (“AFFO”) attributable to American Tower Corporation common stockholders (“AFFO attributable to American Tower Corporation common stockholders”) and Segment gross margin.

We define Adjusted EBITDA as Net income before Income (loss) from equity method investments; Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes; Income tax benefit (provision); Other income (expense); Gain (loss) on retirement of long-term obligations; Interest expense; Interest income; Other operating income (expense), including Goodwill impairment; Depreciation, amortization and accretion; and stock-based compensation expense.

Nareit FFO attributable to American Tower Corporation common stockholders is defined as net income before gains or losses from the sale or disposal of real estate, real estate related impairment charges, real estate related depreciation, amortization and accretion, and including adjustments and distributions for unconsolidated affiliates and noncontrolling interests and adjustments for discontinued operations. In this section, we refer to Nareit FFO attributable to American Tower Corporation common stockholders as “Nareit FFO (common stockholders).”

We define AFFO attributable to American Tower Corporation common stockholders as Nareit FFO (common stockholders) before (i) straight-line revenue and expense; (ii) stock-based compensation expense; (iii) the deferred portion of income tax and other income tax adjustments; (iv) non-real estate related depreciation, amortization and accretion; (v) amortization of deferred financing costs, debt discounts and premiums and long-term deferred interest charges; (vi) other income (expense); (vii) gain (loss) on retirement of long-term obligations; and (viii) other operating income (expense); less cash payments related to capital improvements and cash payments related to corporate capital expenditures and including adjustments and distributions for unconsolidated affiliates and noncontrolling interests and adjustments for discontinued operations, which includes the impact of noncontrolling interests and discontinued operations on both Nareit FFO and the corresponding adjustments included in AFFO. In this section, we refer to AFFO attributable to American Tower Corporation common stockholders as “AFFO (common stockholders).”

We define Segment gross margin as segment revenue less segment operating expenses, excluding depreciation, amortization and accretion; selling, general, administrative and development expense; and other operating expenses.

Adjusted EBITDA, Nareit FFO (common stockholders), AFFO (common stockholders) and Segment gross margin are not intended to replace net income or any other performance measures determined in accordance with GAAP. None of Adjusted EBITDA, Nareit FFO (common stockholders), AFFO (common stockholders) or Segment gross margin represents cash flows from operating activities in accordance with GAAP and, therefore, these measures should not be considered indicative of cash flows from operating activities, as a measure of liquidity or a measure of funds available to fund our cash needs, including our ability to make cash distributions. Rather, Adjusted EBITDA, Nareit FFO (common stockholders), AFFO (common stockholders) and Segment gross margin are presented as we believe each is a useful indicator of our current operating performance. We believe that these metrics are useful to an investor in evaluating our operating performance because (1) each is a key measure used by our management team for decision making purposes and for evaluating our operating segments’ performance; (2) Adjusted EBITDA is a component underlying our credit ratings; (3) Adjusted EBITDA is widely used in the telecommunications real estate sector to measure operating performance as depreciation, amortization and accretion may vary significantly among companies depending upon accounting methods and useful lives, particularly where acquisitions and non-operating factors are involved; (4) AFFO (common stockholders) is widely used in the telecommunications real estate sector to adjust Nareit FFO (common stockholders) for items that may otherwise cause material fluctuations in Nareit FFO (common stockholders) growth from period to period that would not be representative of the underlying performance of property assets in those periods; (5) Segment gross margin provides valuable insight into the site-level profitability of our assets (6) each provides investors with a meaningful measure for evaluating our period-to-period operating performance by eliminating items that are not operational in nature; and (7) each provides investors with a measure for comparing our results of operations to those of other companies, particularly those in our industry.

Our measurement of Adjusted EBITDA, Nareit FFO (common stockholders), AFFO (common stockholders) and Segment gross margin may not, however, be fully comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Reconciliations of Adjusted EBITDA, Nareit FFO (common stockholders) and AFFO (common stockholders) to net income and Segment gross margin to gross margin, the most directly comparable GAAP measures, have been included below.