I read a quote in an article recently which stated, "What Wall Street is about is smart guys thinking about ways to make money from dumb ones." That quote is attributed to one John E. Fitzgibbon, the publisher of an online newsletter, in an article from Eric Dash via The New York Times. While Mr. Fitzgibbon's remark might validate special investing skill on the part of some smart and timely investors, I take exception to the notion that all those investors who lost money in the markets over the past year are the dumb ones.

The question now is, where is the smart money headed?

The General Services Administration announced last week that teams of companies led by AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) and Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE: Q) have won the Networx sweepstakes to provide the federal government telecommunications for the next decade. Noteworthy by its absence was Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), which has provided these services via the previous two 10-year contracts. Those companies winning the contract will be eligible to bid for federal telecommunications services currently estimated to be worth up to $20 billion, although some suggest the total worth may be twice that amount.

For AT&T Government Solutions, this builds on the many existing contracts it holds with departments of the government including Justice, Homeland Security, and the IRS. 4,000 employees already work for this division of AT&T. Its partners in this bid were Bechtel, Cingular Wireless, EDS, Global Crossing, GTSI Corp., Northrop Grumman IT, and SRA International.