AT&T's Randall Stephenson To Retire As CEO

AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said he will retire at the end of June (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), handing leadership of one of the world's largest media and telecommunications companies to longtime deputy John Stankey. The Wall Street Journal reports: Mr. Stephenson, who turned 60 this week, has spent most of his 13 years as chairman and CEO piecing together a modern media business by scooping up DirecTV and then Time Warner, remaking the staid telephone company he inherited. He had been preparing to retire at some point in 2020 until an activist investor surfaced late last year challenging his strategy, according to people familiar with the matter.

"John will be an outstanding CEO for this company, and I couldn't be more confident or pleased in passing him the baton," Mr. Stephenson said of his successor in a video to AT&T's staff. Mr. Stankey, like the man he is succeeding, earned his stripes in the telephone business but has been a leading proponent AT&T's hard turn toward entertainment. "The entire industry is in transformation right now and that transformation extends beyond just the business model," Mr. Stankey said in a recent interview. "It's how markets and how corporations operate." Mr. Stephenson said he will remain chairman until January, when the Dallas-based company is expected to elect an independent chairman. The change was announced at AT&T's annual meeting Friday, which was held online because of the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this morning, President Trump commented on the move. He tweeted: "Great News! Randall Stephenson, the CEO of heavily indebted AT&T, which owns and presides over Fake News @CNN, is leaving, or was forced out. Anyone who lets a garbage 'network' do and say the things that CNN does, should leave ASAP. Hopefully replacement will be much better!"

Ars Technica notes that AT&T's mobile business revenue in Q1 2020 was $42.8 billion, "down from $44.8 billion in last year's first quarter." It adds: "AT&T's WarnerMedia division, a result of Stephenson's Time Warner acquisition, reported a 12.2-percent year-over-year revenue decline and expects tough times ahead as the pandemic forced the cancellation of big sporting events and TV and film production." The company also just yesterday announced that it lost another 897,000 premium TV subscribers in Q1 2020. It looks like the new CEO will have his work cut out for him.

Will the new CEO change anything?

[nightflameauto]

Will the new CEO stop coming up with competing video streaming services that play leapfrog with each other and their names six times a year? Will the new CEO make customer service a priority rather than a non-existing problem? Will the new CEO attempt to promote quality product, or just keep pushing the boat in the same direction of failure AT&T has always had?

Re:

[alvinrod]

Probably not. When companies get to be that large the organization gets convoluted enough as is, but with companies like AT&T that are just folding in people through mergers no one has good oversight of the whole company. None of the units that are redundant have any interest in calling attention to that fact for fear that they'll be let go, and there's going to be plenty of middle management that wants to obfuscate as much as they can to appear indispensable.

AT&T is large enough that it will kee

What an intelligent, thoughtful comment from Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

What an intelligent, thoughtful comment from Donald Trump. He really has redefined the meaning of the word "presidential".

Rat abandonning ship

[ZombieCatInABox]

Well, what do you know. When the going gets tough, the tough gets the hell outa here.

Great News! Randall Stephenson, the CEO of heavily indebted AT&T, which owns and presides over Fake News @CNN, is leaving, or was forced out. Anyone who lets a garbage 'network' do and say the things that CNN does, should leave ASAP. Hopefully replacement will be much better!

Wow. So incredibly "presidential". But of course, this topic will soon be filled with posters taking his defense, as usual. And as usual, most of these will be cowards posting anonymously so they can use their mod-points to downmod anyone critical of their orange God.

I bet they're going to mod this very post as "flamebait". And frankly, they won't be completely wrong.

Re:Rat abandonning ship

[Cyberax]

Finally you have a politician that is telling the truth!

Nah. Tomorrow he'll say that it was "sarcasm" and storm out of the press conference.

Re:Rat abandonning ship

[ZombieCatInABox]

Trump is a compulsive liar, he's been lying continuously for the past fifthy years. And now suddenly he's a "politician that is telling the truth" ?

But you're right. Truth SHOULD be celebrated. So here's another truth to be celebrated, from your beloved pedophile-in-chief himself:

"I could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot someone, and I still wouldn't lose any voters".

Yep. That's exactly what he thinks of you, his beloved supporters. And you keep proving him right again, and again, and again.

Re:Rat abandonning ship

[ZombieCatInABox]

Explain how this ISN'T "Presidential". What does that even mean?

I'm not very demanding of a man that is commander-in-chief of the most powerfull army in the world. All I ask is that he holds a discourse at a level that is slightly above that of a fucking ten year old.

I'm somewhat conflicted

[bobstreo]

I really don't think there is a winning side of this conversation. AT&T, aka "Not (quite) as bad as Comcast" or the guy who will probably be known as "Not as bad as Biden".

Trump's tax cuts in action!

[Cyberax]

The AT&T exemplifies Trump's tax cuts. They used all the extra profit to buy back shares to push the stock price up. Meanwhile, their core infrastructure investments went sharply down because they need to service their debts incurred by buying DirecTV.

Re:

[110010001000]

That isn't Trump's fault, but the asshole CEO. You guys really like to complain about Trump, don't you?

I am worried

[guacamole]

Has AT&T compensated the former CEO sufficiently? Is he going to be able to retire comfortably?

Stephen Wolfram announces A New Kind of Set Theory

[epine]

He had been preparing to retire at some point in 2020 until an activist investor surfaced late last year challenging his strategy, so now he has decided to retire in June 2020 rather than some point in 2020.

ATT, my experience with same...

[ackerrj]

Whenever ATT bought something in the last 15 years, invariably service declined, prices went up, and I ditched the service. Partial record: ATT credit card, Cancelled. DirecTV, used to be decent, Cancelled after fees kept rising in spite of representations to contrary by "customer service". Att Wireless, Cancelled, more of same. Att internet TV (whatever current name is) same MO as after direct TV purchase, Cancelled. So at this point, kiss of death for any "service" purchased by those guys. I do not us

Re:

[ackerrj]

And then, CNN, which once upon a time was actually straight news. Now a sort of Pravda... What a frekin mess.