Fiberwave, Inc. f/k/a Spearhead Consulting, Inc. v. AT&T Enterprises, LLC f/k/a AT&T Corp. v. Fiberwave, Inc. f/k/a Spearheading Consulting, Inc. Spearhead Networks Tech, Inc., Faisal Chaudhry, and Chris Percy (No. 25-BC01A-0013; 2026 Tex. Bus. 2; January 8, 2026) arose from an allegedly defamatory statement communicated via email by AT&T to its “solutions providers,” informing them that the company had terminated its business relationship with Fiberwave (Spearhead). The communication commenced with the statement, “Acting with integrity and doing the right think are part of our culture.” Fiberwave sued, asserting that this statement “cunningly” implied that it didn’t do that. AT&T moved for no-evidence summary judgment.
In opinion by Judge Bouressa, the court granted the motion. The court ruled that since the statements Fiberwave complained of “are not objectively verifiable,” as a matter of law they couldn’t be defamatory. In order to render a statement defamatory, it has to be verifiable as false, not just an opinion of what the statement might “mean.” This requires a court to examine, among other things, the context of the statement and the medium of communication. AT&T pointed to a number of precedents involving similar opinions, observing that the communication at issue “communicated no allegations of any verifiable act or omission by Fiberwave.” Fiberwave’s response to the communication, that it does business “the right way” as part of its culture, was just as general an opinion as AT&T’s was. Rather, the statements were all “beliefs that ‘lie in the eye of the beholder.’” Without any evidence otherwise, the court granted summary judgment in favor of AT&T.
As to AT&T’s summary judgment motion challenging Fiberwave’s negligence claims, the court agreed that Fiberwave had offered no evidence or argument that AT&T knew or should have known that the challenged statement was false and defamatory. And, having already determined that AT&T’s communication was not defamatory, the court ruled that this additional ground supported the motion.
