Looking as far back as 1984, T has had a really bad track record managing money. It started with the new pediment building in NYC. They didn't ever move in after they built it. Building was sold to Sony, who occupies the building today.
Next up was Ameritech building a campus in Hoffman Estates IL. Campus later sold and leased back, now pretty much empty. The purchase of NCR, total failure to launch. Spun off after three frustrating years. Next up, the failed acquisition of Tmobile. Then failed acquisition of Direct TV. Finally the failed acquisition of Warner Media. I'm sure there were other regional financial failures after divestiture that I'm not aware of. Lots and lots of wasted money that should have been saved or spent on moving the company ahead. All this failure and not much on the success side to discuss.
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Having been with the company since 1981, there has been one financial blunder after another. Since the 1984 Deivstiture the company has been floundering.
You forgot when C Michael Armstrong bought Media One with AT&T money, then spun it off into a separate entity with himself placed as the new CEO.
Aside from the massive debt, I think the employees are more worried about the state of the company than the executives that actually run it! With that said, I would have to think they know more about the nuances of running a company than just collecting accounts receivables every month! There are many advisors in finance that have more of a say-so in the big picture than just Stankey and McFresheven, though they might have the ultimate last word! At this point, I don't think I would worry too much about the business! I've been with T for almost 4 decades and have seen A LOT of things happen, some good, some not so much! This company isn't going anywhere in terms of spin-offs! It will rebound like it has many times before, but it will require some change, some of which might be painful, but for the good of the long term! Hang in there, people! Turbulent times could be ahead, but not for long!
Way too many executives over the years lighting their cigars with bejamins!
Too much executive compensation via stock options.
Basically T was run like Nauru.
WoW! That almost sounds criminal!
All of the AT&T CEOs that made bad decisions and laid off tens of thousands of employees and lost hundreds of billions in shareholder value walked away with hundreds of millions in compensation and perks!! From C. Michael Armstrong to Randall Stephenson they are all sitting on at least $100 million with multiple homes and private jet privileges!!!
How about that John Walter.
Terrible decision getting rid of phone booths. Reliable calls for 20 cents.
Bought Teradata in 1991 for 1/4B when they owned NCR.
Yes, that is correct, but NEC was really a company that operated in the background and really wasn't a major player in the company. It was more involved with the electronics in the phones and supplies manufacturing, etc.. NCR was a major player and eventually became AT&T Solutions which was the break-fix and computing arm of AT&T back in the early 90s. Most T employees aren't or were never even aware of NEC being part of AT&T. You must be an old timer with over 30 years!
I do know my facts! NEC's parent company was Western Electric, owned by AT&T. So yes, T owned both NEC and NCR.
You should know your facts before posting them...that would be NCR and not NEC. NCR was acquired by T in 1991 for its parallel processing and then subsequently spun off as an entity of its own and still exists today as an AT&T business partner. NEC is no longer in existence!
Good point. I forgot about the cable acquisition, and NEC. Again, both big losses. It seems like T has always played the part of the little boy having his lunch money swindled out from under him
At the end of the day many executives are responsible for Ts failures. What should be most upsetting to employees is that we all paid the price for those failures through smaller pay increases, more work, loss of benefits and layoffs.
In my opinion, network is becoming more of a commodity. Fiber has become the great equalizer and there are plenty of companies willing to provide it.
Also the Cable Companies which they lost 50 percent on after reselling them back. The NEC computer debacle that loss them 60 percent. The numerous vendors with crazy data bases mis mashed through the network which provided more chaos. Chaos breeds more overtime. The list is very long after the split in 1984. 🤑🤮
Remember Ed Whitaker only had the 5 states and no cell phone company.
Purchased expansion may not be deliberate but for top industry finance investing, followed by failure, implies unqualified people, ego, empire building, or personal financial gain. How about NFTs? hot investment?
Paying investors and workers.
You make it sound like all these failures were deleberate. But I do agree that's a whole lot of failures with big financial consequenses. All while I can't really come up with any success stories that resulted in increased revenue.
Wasting money on salesforce and other hot companies.
Yes, and what about moving T headquarters from SA to Dallas. Then all the money to rebuild/remodel AT&T Plaza. None of this added to the bottom line, just added expense to the company.
Oh you are missing a bunch of failed acquisitions! The list is a LOT longer.
For example, Teradata - or as we used to call it, Terrible-Data.
There there was Ratty Mexico debacle which further enriched Carlos Slim. Another of Ratty's fantasies of conquiring Latin America.
SNET another fail.
Notice the trend - nothing successful!