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posted by Fnord666 on Monday April 27 2020, @10:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the out-with-the-old,-in-with-the-new dept.

AT&T CEO retiring as telco plans for three years of cost cuts and layoffs:

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is retiring at the end of June and handing the reins to executive John Stankey, who will lead the telco through a multi-year cost-cutting program. Stankey, the company president and COO, will become CEO on July 1, AT&T announced today. Stephenson "will serve as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors until January 2021 to ensure a smooth leadership transition."

Stephenson, 60, has been AT&T's CEO since 2007; he began his AT&T career in 1982 with Southwestern Bell Telephone, a subsidiary.

"Stankey's selection as AT&T's next CEO completes the final phase of a succession planning process that AT&T's Board began in 2017, which included a thorough evaluation of internal and external candidates," today's announcement said.

Stankey, 57, has been with AT&T since 1985 and has been president and COO since October 2019. He has recently taken on a more prominent role as part of succession planning. Last month, Stankey detailed a cost-cutting plan to "generate double digits of billions over a 3-year planning cycle." That will include job cuts, which Stankey called "headcount rationalization."

[...] In today's succession announcement, Stephenson said he looks forward to working with Stankey "as the leadership team moves forward on our strategic initiatives while navigating the difficult economic and health challenges currently facing our country and the world. John has the right experiences and skills, and the unflinching determination every CEO needs to act on his convictions."

Stankey said he "couldn't be more excited about the new opportunities we have to serve our customers and communities and create value for our shareholders."

Meanwhile...

AT&T's massive TV losses continue as another 900,000 customers flee:

AT&T lost another 897,000 premium TV subscribers in Q1 2020, as the DirecTV owner's string of massive customer losses continued. An AT&T executive today said the company is moving ahead with a company-wide cost-cutting program.

AT&T's earnings announcement today said the 897,000-customer net loss reduced the total number of premium TV subscribers to 18.6 million. AT&T said the latest customer loss was "due to competition and customers rolling off promotional discounts as well as lower gross adds from the continued focus on adding higher-value customers."

AT&T's premium TV category includes DirecTV, U-verse TV, and the new AT&T TV online offering that mimics cable and satellite services by imposing contracts, hidden fees, and a big second-year price hike. In 2019, AT&T lost 3.43 million premium TV customers, an average of nearly 860,000 per quarter.

AT&T hasn't done much to stop subscriber losses, as the company seems focused on raising the average revenue per customer instead of offering deals that would entice people to stick around.

The company today also reported a 138,000-subscriber net loss in AT&T TV Now, a streaming service that's separate from the premium TV category. AT&T TV Now is down to 788,000 subscribers, only a year after AT&T reported more than 1.5 million subscribers to the service. Formerly known as DirecTV Now, the streaming service hit a peak of 1.86 million subscribers on September 30, 2018, before customers started canceling as their discounts expired. AT&T attributed the latest customer loss to "higher prices and less promotional activity."

Things are not looking good for AT&T.


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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday April 27 2020, @03:45PM

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 27 2020, @03:45PM (#987547) Journal

    There was an earlier SF Short Story of that name, and with that plot. I don't remember enough about it, or know enough about the Twilight Zone episode to know that they are related.

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