21.   British Telecommunications had previously considered a legal separation of its consumer business from its infrastructure unit, which would have had its own stock market listing.

22.   Both of those companies announced restructuring plans in recent days designed to relieve the pressure their declining consumer long-distance businesses are placing on other parts of their businesses.

23.   But Global has a much wider investment scope than Global Marketplace, which concentrates on retail companies and related consumer businesses.

24.   But Citicorp may not be inclined to do so because of its new emphasis on consumer businesses.

25.   But its consumer electronics business has suffered lately, partly because of its unprofitable German unit, Grundig AG.

26.   But the consumer long-distance business fell apart.

27.   But the fundamentals in the consumer business look bad, because revenue is declining at an accelerating rate.

28.   But somehow, despite rapidly deteriorating fundamentals in the consumer software business, the Massachusetts-based company made its skeptics look silly.

29.   But the overhang of the decline in voice and, in a large part, the consumer business is very depressing.

30.   By contrast, its chief New York rival, Citigroup, gets half its revenues from consumer businesses.