Henry Ford once purchased a company that made automobile windows. He thought it only natural to own and run a company that produced a part that was critical to his production. His endeavor failed. Why? Because Ford knew how to make automobiles. Manufacturing glass was not their core competency. AT&T's decision to bank their future on Time Warner reminds me of the Henry Ford story. Media and Entertainment is way outside of the core competency of anyone at AT&T. Acquiring a company that was already using your network to transmit their content was dumb (plain old dumb). Decimating the staff needed to keep your network running to pay off the debt from that acquisition is stupid. With a capital "S".
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"we should be designing and manufacturing our own smartphones and programming our own OS onto them. Instead of using Cicso routers, Ericsson and Nokia radio equipment, we should be designing and manufacturing our own hardware for internal use. All employee laptops should be designed and manufactured by AT&T and with their own AT&T designed and programmed OS. Every piece of metal and plastic that we use to build our phones, computers, networking equipment, radio and baseband equipment should be mined and processed by AT&T and it's workers. Not only that, but all of the resources that are mined and drilled to make that hardware should only be extracted with AT&T designed and manufactured machinery and tools, and all of the metal and plastic that those tools are made of should be mined and processed by AT&T."
Sounds like you want to resurrect Western Electric and NCR to me...
Careful, if the executives read this they may put a bid in to buy Ford.
actually windshields were not required on automobiles when first built. They did not become standard for some time. Original windshields were actually made by ford and had to be redesigned when lawsuits came in from the glass was not shatterproof. Ford messed up in many ways as did other automakers with glass but not in the way the poster gave.
If it were AT&T, they would have offered windshields before anyone wanted them. Then k–led the option a few years before everyone wanted them. And when trying to catch up again, outsourced the manufacturing of them. All the time wondering why their over priced edsel didn't sell with the foreign windshields.
Are you serious @1of? AT&T can't even design a reliably working system for technicians to close out their jobs. Of the few things that this company does still design itself, NONE OF IT EVEN WORKS! Nearly everything this company has to offer to the world has been acquired from an innovated company, outsourced to a more competent company or contractor, or imported from India.
AT&T designing a smartphone and creating an operating system (that worked) would be like a bigger miracle than a caveman inventing differential calculus.
I don't necessarily agree with this. The ultimate goal of any enterprise should be to seize all means of production of it's products. AT&T should not be selling iPhones or Androids - we should be designing and manufacturing our own smartphones and programming our own OS onto them. Instead of using Cicso routers, Ericsson and Nokia radio equipment, we should be designing and manufacturing our own hardware for internal use. All employee laptops should be designed and manufactured by AT&T and with their own AT&T designed and programmed OS. Every piece of metal and plastic that we use to build our phones, computers, networking equipment, radio and baseband equipment should be mined and processed by AT&T and it's workers. Not only that, but all of the resources that are mined and drilled to make that hardware should only be extracted with AT&T designed and manufactured machinery and tools, and all of the metal and plastic that those tools are made of should be mined and processed by AT&T.
Unless those things are happening, you cannot say that we are existence as a company is justified. The minute you rely on another company to provide you with even one product or service to make your business run, you have failed as a company.
Are you saying AT&T should buy Ford but don't buy the windows company? Wow, so smart.
HBO Max has none of the features of Netflix or Amazon. It can not personalize. It is just a shell on same old HBO, plus some old movies from Turner classic and Warner classic.
They are not that smart. While Netflix has tons of new series, it also has tons of documentaries. Just watch Dirty Money, Tiger King, or Epstein stuff. Plus international content. Plus special interest content like for auto lovers or pet lovers or environmentalists.
Compare that to HBO Max. It is all so old school. It was funny watching Stankey talk about last season of GOT. Dude that was 2 years ago. Nothing new now. AT&T is in a tough place and Elliott knows Stankey will fail. Paul Singer and his clan are just waiting to pounce on id–t Stankey who will leave soon enough after collecting his golden parachute having fired 100,000 superb telecom employees of every stripe.
AT&T should have been doing nothing. That is the real secret to success. And lots of complaining.
Except that Henry Ford was very good at running his automotive business. The losers running AT&T aren't competent to even run a girl scout bake sale, let alone a large business.
stock speculation is the investor game, short time promises for a dividend.
What is the dividend of Zero?
Compelling argument
Nice history lesson. Clearly Randall didn't care. TW was another "me too" acquisition. Like so many before it. TW's revenues are already tanking. HBO Max is a joke compared to the streaming services with which it competes. Randall is landing just fine with his retirement parachute. And John Stankey is a bully-buffoon that thinks his California mailing address qualifies him for Hollywood parts. Those that are getting out on this round are fortunate. The folks left behind are going to live a life of misery until their number gets called. Hasta la vista, Baby.
who cares att is beyond rescuing.