AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is stepping down,"Great News!" Trump tweeted on Friday morning John Stankey to serve as new CEO
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has announced that he will step down from his position to position him as the new CEO on July 1 via CNBC with AT&T President and COO John Stankey in the current position. Stephenson will continue to serve as the executive chairman of the board of AT&T until January 2021.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson pulled back from the company, after which the telecom operator reported that it lost 3.42 million video subscribers in 2019. Stephenson announced his departure at the annual meeting held on Friday.
Stephenson has served as CEO of AT&T since May 2007, a time period that saw the company expand extensively in both existing and new markets, with an effort in 2011 (but a failed purchase of T-Mobile) , Acquired Leap Wireless in 2013. The purchase of DirecTV in 2014, and the Landmark $ 85 billion Time Warner deal that closed back in 2018 after years of regulatory battles and objections from the Justice Department.
Stephenson is being replaced by the company's president and chief operating officer, John Stankey, who also ran WarnerMedia, which has large assets including CNN, HBO and Turner.
Stankey became the heir in September when AT&T named him president and COO of the company. Stankey continued to oversee his WarnerMedia division as CEO, but began searching for a successor at the end of last year. AT&T named former Hulu chief Jason Killer as the new CEO of WarnerMedia in April, allowing Stankey to move into AT&T without worrying about overseeing the day-to-day operations of the company's growing and controversial division Found a place for
Stephenson will become executive chairman of the board of directors by January 2021, according to a statement. He was the Chief Executive for 13 years.
Stankey’s move — first to COO and now to CEO — comes just months after activist investor Paul Singer’s Elliott Management publicly critiqued AT&T for its various media purchases. President Donald Trump, once friendly with Stephenson, wasted no time jabbing him over his departure. Elliot Management’s letter shed doubt on the decision to launch a direct-to-consumer streaming service, HBO Max, set to compete against Netflix and Disney Plus, in what many have taken to be a specific critique of both Stephenson and Stankey and their choices running the company.AT&T’s ownership of CNN has been problematic for Trump, given his intense dislike of its coverage of the White House.
"Great News!" Trump tweeted on Friday morning. "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!"
“I’m honored to be elected the next CEO of AT&T, a company with a rich history and a bright future,” Stankey said in a press release. “My thanks go to Randall for his vision and outstanding leadership during a period of tremendous change and investment in the core capabilities needed to position AT&T well for the years ahead."
Stephenson is the second major chief executive to step down as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take an economic toll. Both Stephenson and Stankey have stood by HBO Max as an integral part of AT&T’s future, especially as the traditional cable and satellite divisions continue to suffer. Stephenson described it as a “meaningful business” to the company that will play out over the next four to five years. Disney chief executive Bob Iger also said he was stepping down, but maintains an ongoing operational role at the company.
AT&T lost 138,000 AT&T TV is now streaming service subscribers in the most recent quarter, which followed a loss of 219,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter. AT&T reported a loss of 897,000 premium TV subscribers in DirecTV and U-Verse. The company lost more than one million TV subscribers in total.
A pioneer in the epidemic, AT&T was already grappling with a large debt burden and has raised questions about how it will continue to pay dividends to shareholders. The company closed the last quarter with $ 147.2 billion in long-term debt.
Stephenson was under pressure after activist investor Elliott Management targeted the telecom operator for wanting strong results from the company's acquisition of Time Warner, now renamed WarnerMedia. It came under stress with the investor after coming up with a three-year plan to sell the assets.
