John Stankey to lead AT&T as the CEO from 1st July

In a recent development in AT&T, Randall Stephenson steps down from his position with current AT&T president and COO John Stankey set to replace him as the new CEO on July 1st, 2020, and Randall Stephenson as the executive chairman. Stephenson will continue to serve as the executive chairman of AT&T’s board until January 2021.

AT&T was under pressure from activist shareholder Elliott Management to remove Randall Stephenson from the CEO job - even before the retirement.

AT&T’s spending on acquisitions of DirecTV and Time Warner, which are yet to create significant revenue streams, has resulted into the creation of $200 billion in debt. Elliott Management earlier criticized the moves when it picked up a $3.2 billion stake in the company last year.

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. AT&T lost lost 138,000 AT&T TV Now streaming service subscribers in the most recent quarter, which followed a loss of 219,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter. AT&T also recorded a 897,000 loss of premium TV subscribers at DirecTV and U-Verse. The company lost more than one million TV subscribers overall.

AT&T in an earlier SEC filing said CEO Randall Stephenson’s FY 2019 total compensation was $32 million versus $29.1 million in FY 2018. AT&T president and coo John Stankey’s FY 2019 total compensation was $22.5 million versus $16.6 million in FY 2018.

Total compensation of John Donovan, former CEO of AT&T Communications, was $27 million in FY 2019.

John Stankey oversaw WarnerMedia after AT&T’s $85 billion purchase of media company Time Warner, as well as the creation of HBO Max, the new streaming service that will launch May 27.

The success of HBO Max will be a big test of John Stankey’s role as CEO as AT&T hopes to compete with streaming giants like Netflix and Walt Disney’s Disney+.

AT&T’s board reviewed both external and internal candidates for the CEO role as part of a succession planning process started in 2017.