Texas Business Court Decision – January 8, 2026

No. 25-BC01A-0013    Fiberwave, Inc., etc. v. AT&T Enterprises, etc.  (First Div., Judge Bouressa)  25-bc01a-0013-fiberwave-v-att-enterprises-2026-tex-bus-2.pdf

Ruling on Defendant AT&T’s Motion for Summary Judgment on Fiberwave’s Defamation Claim.  The motion is granted, the court holding the summary judgment record contains no evidence of either a false, defamatory statement or that AT&T should known of its falsity.

AT&T sent its “solution providers” an email in April, 2024 informing them it was terminating its business relationship with Fiberwave; the email began by informing the recipients that “Acting with integrity and doing the right thing” were part of AT&T’s culture and that it was acting on these values in ending its relationship with Fiberwave; Here is the email:

Acting with integrity and doing the right thing are part of our
culture. These values underpin how we operate and upholding
them can require making difficult business decisions. We want to
let you know that we have decided to end our business relationship
with one of our Alliance Channel partners, specifically Spearhead
Consulting, also known as FiberWave and related entities
(collectively, “Spearhead”).

Fiberwave claimed the statement “Cunningly implied that Fiberwave’s business was not conducted with integrity or with doing the right thing in mind,” thereby defaming Fiberwave. AT&T moved for summary judgment on the defamation claim on no-evidence grounds, arguing Fiberwave could not establish two elements of a defamation claim – that the statement was defamatory and that it was made with the requisite degree of fault.

Held: (1) The statements about which Fiberwave complains are not objectively verifiable and therefore, as a matter of law, are not defamatory; even assuming the statements imply that Fiberwave lacked honesty and integrity and does not do the right thing, the statement communicated no allegations of any verifiable act or omission by Fiberwave; thus the statement did not allege verifiable facts by which any reasonable fact finder could measure the veracity of the conclusory statements; and (2) AT&T’s motion also challenged Fiberwave’s ability to prove the requisite degree of fault, here: negligence. There was simply no evidence on this summary judgment record that AT&T knew or should have known that the challenged statement was false and defamatory. AT&T’s Motion is granted.