The worst merger in the history of Southwestern Bell, or AT&T, was the merger between T and DIRECTV. Most of the DTV folks came over, and just literally ruined several organizations before either being told to leave or being forced to leave. The call center segment was completely ruined by them. It was legit the worst financial decision ever. Now, all of the courting that helped with the merger has been removed from the company either by force or retirement. With the exception of the stink at the top. The worst boss I’ve ever had was the Queen herself, KG with the game of thrones disaster, then Hung from DTv gosh and JB the former Evp who was demoted to SVp was a clueless Big Ed favorite. Wonder who’s still around from the manic time
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DTV had much better corp culture and skilled employees. Actually many DTV employees stuck around under ATT and LOTS of ATT middle managers were surplused.
Directv actually used to have good customer service before T took them over and made sure and put an end to that.
Stinky was clueless about the DTV an TW acquisitions…he overpaid for the companies and made a lot of bonehead moves…remember after the TW merger he said he had to start watching a lot more TV to better understand what they do…unbelievable!!!! Not surprisingly, most of the talent left on their own…and the Stinky Stank is still here running this company into the ground..
Bitter old man going way back to find something to complain about.
Agree, except I think the TW deal was the bigger boondoggle, not only cost-wise, but also since T executives plowed into the studios and demanded more hits, like Game of Thrones, etc., and just telephone company practices don't work like that on tv/movie/creative talent production. You just don't know what's going to be a hit. If it were me buying into TW/HBO, I would've left the whole group, management from the top on down, alone, and let them work their magic, unencumbered...AT LEAST for several years until I started understanding the business! Then, and only then, MAYBE start suggesting subtle tweaks...
But yeah, buy High, muck up the works, sell low. That's the ticket.
Yes, agree. Any former DTV worker that is now part of AT&T is completely clueless.
I can still hear RJS claiming all over the world how compatible the DTV and AT&T cultures were and that paying a premium for DTV was a great investment. Only to be topped by the absolute, most bone headed decision by RJS to pay another premium, this time for TW, and then waste $1Billion litigating the loser deal with DOJ. VZ and T-Mo must be laughing about this every day. And to think RJS like his father-in-law walk out the door with golden parachutes.
"Most of the DTV folks came over, and just literally ruined several organizations before either being told to leave or being forced to leave."
Um, wow. Did you ever get this one wrong. After the T Invasion (not a merger), the first thing that happened was ... putting Stink in charge of DTV. And what did Stink do? Start laying off DTV managers and execs, putting T people in their place, and forcing the round DTV peg into the square T hole (and we all know those T-holes).
The result? Just as expected. DTV started to hemorrhage customers at a rate much higher than the pay-tv average because T forked up the service so much. Stink's plan to control the mass exodus of customers? To create and launch DTV Now, that wonderful streaming app that - you guessed it - increased customer loss.
There is no doubt that the T invasion of DTV was a disaster, but at least you should place the blame where it belongs: On Randy for thinking this was a great idea and especially on Stink for strongarming DTV into the coffin before it was actually dead.
I did like that TV package for $10/ month while it lasted though, I must say.
Now if I could just get someone to get that d-mb thing off the side of my house.