AT&T (NYSE:T) reshuffled its top executives in the first major restructuring of the company's executive team since the collapse of its $39 billion bid to acquire T-Mobile USA.
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John Stankey, previously the president of AT&T's business solutions unit, was named to the newly created position of group president and chief strategy officer. AT&T said he will be responsible for finding future growth opportunities, including corporate development; addressing long-term wireless capacity needs, which likely means hunting for new sources of spectrum; and for looking at the best strategic paths for the company's low-growth and non-strategic assets. Interestingly, AT&T also said that Forrest Miller, a 30-year veteran who was the company's head of corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions, will retire, and it appears Stankey will take over Miller's duties.
Additionally, AT&T said that Ralph de la Vega will remain as the president and CEO of AT&T Mobility, but will no longer run the company's consumer markets business. He will continue to focus on expanding AT&T's position in smartphones.
Meanwhile, Andy Geisse was named the head of AT&T's business and home solutions operation, and will run the company's business segment as well as AT&T's U-verse, broadband and voice services in the company's landline operations. Finally, CTO John Donovan will get the new title of senior executive vice president of AT&T's technology and network operations, and he will be in charge of all of AT&T's technology and networks, including its mobile broadband network.
All of AT&T's top executives, from Randall Stephenson on down, have expressed disappointment that the company's bid for T-Mobile fell apart in the face of opposition from regulators at the Department of Justice and FCC, but have said that they will continue to press for more wireless spectrum while at the same time working to improve AT&T's network coverage and capacity through internal efforts.
For more:
- see this release
- see this Reuters article
- see this Dow Jones Newswires article (sub. req.)
- see this AP article
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