Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

By decimating your core competency and the professionals that innovated it at the expense of having a tee vee property. Welcome Elliot, if you get much resistance I would expect that Mr Ichan will be stopping in to visit shortly as well. LOL.

Sorry no more corporate chartered Jets, no more spousal travel expense, no more speaking fees, no more Pebble Beach, no more C suite at the stadiums, no more free lunch on the backs of the producers..

It’s becoming fairly obvious for the investment community.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/09/cramer-calls-att-the-most-republican-of-any-publicly-trade-company.html

This is all play on CNN to influence the 2020 elections while also picking up some extra cash

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/03/paul-singer-goes-on-offense-against-democrats-ahead-of-2020-election.html

And then the stock started sliding as investors realized this dude made it pop so he could sell into it. Who is going to buy the pieces for a good price after he basically said they are c-ap?

WOW! As they say, the fish rots from the head down. Seems like Elliot is going to chop off the head and make sushi from the good parts that are left. It is about time. I'm retired and on the outside looking in. Good luck to my hardworking colleagues as this drama plays out.

Another article here:
https://www.lightreading.com/financial/atandt-could-win-in-5g-but-needs-an-overhaul-first-activist-investor-says-/d/d-id/753979
"Elliott Management now owns around 1.2% of AT&T's total market value, ... Bloomberg acknowledged that Elliott Management may have a difficult time pushing for change unless it gets other investors to back its stance. "
They'll need to run an alternative slate of directors for shareholders to vote on at the next annual meeting. Even in business, we're a democracy.

Speaking of democracy "President Trump also stepped into the issue, writing on Twitter that it's ”great news that an activist investor is now involved” with AT&T. Trump also tied the topic to AT&T's ownership of CNN, and he reiterated his general opposition to the news channel and its coverage of Trump's administration." 😜

Five bucks says T will post some Public Relations BS and a week from now we will still have the same three clod-hoppers running this place down the drain.

KARMA

Glad that finally share holders can hold this incompetent board accountable, for letting the dumb (Stankey) and dumber (Randy) ruin this great company, and letting these guys ruin the lives of so many hard working (both management and unions) with outsourcing, layoffs etc.

When large shareholders start publicly calling the CEO out on the carpet for all the world to see the end is near.

Your days are numbered Randy, unfortunately it looks like Stanky is next in line.

Chairman is a weak soul, all consumed by a desire to escape the shadows of Whitacre and try to do one better – moving HQ to Dallas just to get out of the town owned by his predecessor, and then a string of devstating acquistions (to match acquisitions that reconstituted AT&T under Whitacre) wrapped in grandiose vision which are quite challenging to execute, meanwhile discounting the cashcow businesses that fuels their misadventures.

leadership is not just about grand vision but also needs courage, discipline, self-awareness, and patience. Street will also scream and demand more. And it takes courage to stay on course (much like Amazon) rather than give in and try to pull a rabbit out of the hat.

This is long overdue. The Board has been asleep at the wheel since the failed TMobile merger. The CEO and upper management isn't the biggest problem. It's the Board for lack of oversight and rubber stamping the CEO's strategy. How he survived the failed TMobile merger only Houdini knows.

Everyone needs to read the letter. Elliott Mgmt may be vultures and parasites but they clearly did their homework. They nailed all 3 of Randall's strikes.

Meanwhile, the surplus activity will continue on schedule. Or it might even increase now to achieve more “operational efficiencies.”

Chairman, (new) COO and CFO all need to go. Chairman and COO were both the braintrusts that did all 3 horrible deals that this firm outlined (and that most employees agree upon, but cannot speak of in public), and the CFO should have been protesting bloody loudly to protest all 3 deals. All 3 are tainted by the stain and financial impact of all of the bad M&A.

The day Randy and Stinky step down, T stock price will zoom ..

The vultures are circling. They want Randy out. I’m sure T pay so much attention to this list of “recommendations.

Here's Wikipedia on Elloitt Management.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Management_Corporation
"By 2009 "more than one-third of Elliott’s portfolio was concentrated in distressed securities, typically in the debt of bankrupt or near-bankrupt companies."[7] Elliott has widely been described as a vulture fund."

Blackrock and Vanguard own the stock for the same reason I do ─ the dividends. When they start complaining, I'll pay attention, as opposed to this Monday morning quarterback who just showed up.

There is $17 trillion dollars of negative yielding debt in the world, so people are chasing dividend paying stocks. That's why I said buy it at $30. These people show up at $35-36 - they're already a day late and a dollar short. The dividend is causing a stock price rise all by itself.

But, I'll change my mind if Blackrock and Vanguard also start saying stuff.

Some of the "questionable M&A" Elliott highlighted include Time Warner in 2016, DirectTV in 2014, and the attempt to buy T-Mobile, which they called "the most damaging deal was the one not done.”
Elliott called AT&T an "outlier" when it comes to its M&A strategy, noting that the company has sought to assemble conglomerates.
"We firmly believe that AT&T’s M&A strategy has not only contributed directly to its profound share price underperformance, but has also caused distractions that have contributed to the Company’s recent operational underperformance," the letter said.
Elliott called the company’s underperformance in the last decade "severe and disappointing."
"What has attracted our attention, as well as the attention of other shareholders – from large institutions to individual AT&T employees – has been the prolonged and substantial underperformance of AT&T as an investment relative to its potential," Elliott wrote. "Over the past ten years, for example, AT&T – a 'bellwether' in all senses of the word – has not only failed to keep pace with the broader market, but has actually underperformed by over 150 percentage points."

Just a tech here .. long read .. agree with almost everything outlined

Wall Street is not happy with Randy and the boys. Wall Street wants to sell off the company in pieces. Like a junk car that is more valuable in parts, than in whole. This does not end well for the common employee. Randy and the boys will be forced out but taken care of. The rest of us will be forced to go with whatever business unit currently with when that unit is sold off. Good going Randy. The destruction of AT&T is your legacy. Goof

Woo hoo. Spin off Warner and DTV. $185B buys a lot if 5G!

I love how they basically said that Randall wins the MVP.....for T-Mobile.

If AT&T wants a $60+/share stock it needs to get rid of Randall. T will not realize it’s full potential under this SBC dinosaur.