https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeff-bewkes-lashes-out-at-at-t-in-coming-book-11636974000?mod=flipboard
13 replies (most recent on top)
Big difference between AT&T and Enron. The wireless spectrum licenses and wireline right of ways AT&T has keep out all but a handful of similarly lethargic competitors and assure that no matter what its incompetent management does, money keeps pouring in. in other words no matter how many holes these clowns put in the balloon there's always enough air being pumped in to keep it from going flat. Enron didn't have that advantage. They had to have some intelligent life on board to keep their scam going as long as they did.
Enron doesn’t hold a candle to the crooks inside of T. They go all the way to the bottom. Even sales doing what they are to,d without reporting it to a state or federal agency. Everyone is in “my job is more important than my morals” mode. Liars, thieves, and crooks the entire lot.
Bewkes is a POS and was well compensated. Easy for him to arm chair quarterback after he received millions. He lost all street cred when he took the payout.
For those who do not have WSJ subscription, you see a few details here:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/11/ex-time-warner-ceo-claims-that-att-botching-merger-was-a-big-surprise/
Bewkes isn't free of blame, the wish for Stankey to leave his people alone is naïve. If he really cared about putting WM/HBO on the right track, he should've signed the managers/producers to muti-year contracts with a massive penalty payout for early dismissal.
Then again, nothing is fool proof when Stankey is charge.
Book title “ ATT Hall of Shame, Follow the Money”
Funny, that last quote is 100 percent spot on for this company. They’ve acted like this with every merger/acquisition, as well as pretty much everything else. Not listening to anyone because you’re somehow smarter than everyone else is what SBC has always been about.
LOL on this: Mr. Bewkes is quoted in the book as saying, is that he and his board thought AT&T “would basically leave our people alone.” That didn’t happen, he said. “We didn’t think they would go to such a level of malpractice as to not listen to anybody…even though they themselves had no experience in those areas.”
Stankey and his cronies have a pi---d poor record in hiring and retaining talents. Just look at the current T executive ranks, there ain't any superstars. Stankey outed WM/HBO veterans who build the business and brought in Jason Kilar. And he blames investors not giving him the credit for the fu---d up job. Let's follow his great leadership example on performance reviews, blaming customers for giving us credit and demand a pay raise.
History repeats itself. NCR, DTV, WM, TMOB, all failures, when will they learn? Significant amount of cash thrown down a rat ho-e. If T wasn't 170B in debt, the acquisitions would likely comtinue. No bank will loan T anymore money, that's a good thing!
Fixed it for ya: When AT&T bought the company they had the right to ruin it, just like they did to every other company they ever bought, and destroy it like the incompetent buffoons T execs are.
When AT&T bought the company they had the right to do what ever they wanted.
Let’s hope not. That means we are all out of a job. I don’t think many would disagree that our leadership needs to be thrown out. Cronyism is rampant and competence is lacking.