However, by retaining a sizeable shareholding and a share in the management of the company, they are able to hold on to a good proportion of the company's profitability into the future.

I don't think they are going to split. Management has indicated that while they are a public company, they would like to run themselves as if they were a private company and you could argue that's a similar path as Berkshire.

(Investors) don't want to see this relatively ferocious back and forth between the government and Telstra management, they want to see a plan for how earnings and the share price of the company are going to be buoyed.

The remarkable thing about it is that the company has been in a spectacular uptrend and yet it constantly amazes with its ability to climb higher and higher.

The remarkable thing about it is that the company has been in a spectacular uptrend and yet it constantly amazes with its ability to climb higher and higher,

Freddie Mac ( FRE ) takes these issues, which relate to prior management of both the company and its government relations operation, very seriously. The settlement announced today is part of the company's ongoing efforts to put behind us regulatory and legal issues dating back to 2003 and earlier.