Stankey in Barrons: $1.5 billion in cuts 2020

[ Anyone in the company have any insight as to where these may be happening, or how? ]

AT&T seems intent on demonstrating to the market that it has gotten religion about fiscal responsibility. In a presentation Tuesday at the UBS Global TMT Conference, AT&T President John Stankey said the company plans to cut spending by $1.5 billion next year via reductions in labor and overhead costs.

AT&T disclosed the details of Stankey's presentation in a press release.
Stankey also said that AT&T plans a $4 billion accelerated share repurchase program in the first quarter of 2020 that will reduce its share count by about 100 million shares. The company has 7.3 billion shares outstanding.

Stankey, who also serves as CEO of the company's Warner Media unit, said AT&T began retiring shares in the fourth quarter, helping to offset the effect on fourth-quarter earnings per share from investments in the company's pending HBO Max streaming service.

The cost-reduction program is in addition to AT&T's "recent typical 6% to 8% reduction in network operational costs," the executive said.

Stankey emphasized that AT&T plans to keep investing while also continuing "modest annual dividend growth." He said that by the end of 2022, AT&T expects to have retired all of the debt incurrent to fund the $85 billion Time Warner acquisition in 2018.

AT&T said it is targeting a ratio of net debt to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization in the range of 2 to 2.25 times—a shift the company believes will result in a higher debt rating.

The company also said it continues to review its portfolio to achieve its target of monetizing $5 billion to $10 billion of assets in 2020.

"Potential sales include AT&T's regional sports networks, additional real-estate transactions and additional tower sales," the company said. AT&T said it expects the previously announced monetization of its stake in Central European Media and the sale of its Puerto Rico wireless operations to close by the middle of 2020.

In premarket trading Wednesday, AT&T shares were 0.4% higher, while futures on the S&P 500 were near the break-even line.

Write to Eric J. Savitz at eric.savitz@barrons.com
Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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11 replies (most recent on top)

If Randy and Stank were so impressed with TW, they should have just sent them their resume and applied for a job over there.

Yes, the layoffs are due to their debt and it’s obvious they are targeting the employees closet to retirement- MTP or rule of 75 so they don’t have to pay the benefits. I do not see them targeting persons who are already at retirement.

So basically they’re starring to admit they’re cutting all the employees to pay for the time warner debt.

Didn’t they argue to the doj that the time warner merger could go through since it would not result in large cuts to the work force? What is going on here is criminal. These two need to be investigated and locked up

There lies the age old question!! They will cut deep to the bone then panic and rehire at bare minimum wages and the “new hires” will think they hit pay dirt by getting a “career” at AT&T little do they know they are 10-20 year scape goats for a company that could gibe a rats a$$ about them they do not recognize the people that built what they have they can ki$$ my a$$

"If you have anything to do with the local landline assets at AT&T, like operations be prepared to see your future paycheck come from Frontier Communications Corporation. You can't say I didn't warn you......."

Frontier is on the verge of bankruptcy and can't afford to buy AT&T's assets, although AT&T no doubt is looking for a purchaser.

There is an article here.
https://www.lightreading.com/optical-ip/atandt-targets-labor-wireline-footprint-in-new-cost-cutting-effort-/d/d-id/756197
"executives are looking at everything from shrinking AT&T's workforce to a "rationalization" of the operator's wireline footprint."
"AT&T would also look into its wireline operations with an eye toward "product rationalization" and "geographic and footprint rationalization.""
It sounds familiar to a previously announced "2020" plan.

What "leadership" doesn't realize is, they can make cuts from now on, but it is absolutely impossible, in this day &age to be successful & profitable without treating employees with dignity & respect. They will burn this place to the ground before they will respect their employees. They can sell all they want, they'll still be mediocre company, just with less assets.

If you have anything to do with the local landline assets at AT&T, like operations be prepared to see your future paycheck come from Frontier Communications Corporation. You can't say I didn't warn you.......

At the same time Stinkey has no Shame to get a 60% pay raise! He is the one who wanted to buy DTV and install a dish on every rooftop - what a genius! Karma will get you Skinkey!

I know what’s not for sale. The corporate jets, the free cars, and estates. Oh and they seem to find plenty of money to continuously renovate the corporate headquarters.

Sell it all John.

Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

Stankey in Barrons: $1.5 billion in cuts 2020

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