Randall Stephenson, AT&T CEO , Takes $2 Million Pay Cut Over Failed T-Mobile Deal

NEW YORK -- AT&T Inc.'s board cut CEO Randall Stephenson's 2011 pay by $2.08 million because he engineered the failed deal to buy T-Mobile USA, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.

Opposition from federal antitrust regulators forced the Dallas-based phone company to give up on the $39 billion deal in December. That meant it had to hand over $4.2 billion in cash and spectrum rights to T-Mobile as a so-called "break-up fee" to compensate T-Mobile for the failure.

Looking at that $4.2 billion charge, AT&T's board cut Stephenson's cash bonus by 25 percent, and cut his stock award by 6 percent, for a total of $2.08 million.

That left Stephenson's 2011 total pay package at $18.7 million, according to the Associated Press formula. His compensation was down from $20.2 million in 2010.

It's unusual for company boards to cut CEO compensation for specific missteps. But the cost of the failed T-Mobile deal was exceptional. It's standard practice to offer break-up fees to get acquisition targets to sign on to a deal, but the one AT&T promised was unusually large.

The AP's compensation formula includes Stephenson's salary, bonus, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.

The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals that companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with regulators.

For all of 2011, AT&T earned $3.9 billion, or 66 cents per share, on $126.7 billion in revenue. That compares with net income of $19.9 billion, or $3.35 per share, on $124.3 billion in revenue in 2010.

Related on HuffPost:

The collapse of AT&T's proposed buyout of T-Mobile ranks among the biggest tech disasters of the past year. See the slideshow (below) for the worst flops and flubs in technology in 2011.

• Qwikster

  If there is one lesson to be learned from The Great Qwikster Debacle of 2011 it is this: Don't take your perfectly good service and make it more expensive and then harder to use. In July, Netflix <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/12/netflix-price-subscription-plan_n_895779.html" target="_hplink">unbundled their DVD rental and streaming plan,</a> effectively forcing customers to pay $6 more for the combo plan they had grown accustomed to. Then, in September, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/19/qwikster-netflix-streaming-dvds_n_969135.html" target="_hplink">Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced</a> that DVD rentals and streaming would become two totally separate services. The streaming service would retain the name "Netflix," while the DVD branch would be called "Qwikster." Reactions were predictably negative, and on October 10, before Qwikster had even launched, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/10/qwikster-dead-netflix-kills_n_1003098.html" target="_hplink">Netflix ended the failed experiment. </a> But the company has paid dearly. In October, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/netflix-account-losses-q3-2011_n_1029269.html" target="_hplink">Netflix announced</a> that it had lost 800,000 subscribers during the July - September quarter. In November, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/nflx-netflix-hits-20-month-low_n_1108357.html" target="_hplink">the AP reported</a> that the company had lost 75 percent of its market value. Hastings, who is largely blamed for the blunders, will see his <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/22/reed-hastings-netflix-stock_n_1166059.html" target="_hplink">2012 stock options awards cut in half</a>. <em>Image via AP</em>

• HP's Attempted Spinoff Of PC Branch

  In August, Hewlett-Packard stunned customers when it announced plans to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/hp-will-keep-pc-unit_n_1043709.html" target="_hplink">spin off its entire PC unit</a> in order to focus on enterprise software. This move was part of then-CEO Leo Apotheker's plan to reinvent HP, currently the world's largest PC maker in terms of market share. Apotheker's new direction would have steered HP away from hardware and toward "enterprise information management." But it wasn't to be. In September, former eBay President and CEO <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/22/meg-whitman-hp-ceo_n_976062.html" target="_hplink">Meg Whitman replaced Apotheker at the helm of HP</a>. A month later, <a href="http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1821731" target="_hplink">research firm Gartner found</a> that HP's PC market share had grown by 3.2 percent during the third quarter of 2011, despite upheaval inside the company. Soon after, the plan to shed personal computers was dead. <a href="http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2011/111027xa.html" target="_hplink">Whitman issued a statement</a> in late October regarding the reversal. "HP objectively evaluated the strategic, financial and operational impact of spinning off PSG. It's clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees," she said. Apotheker's botched reinvention plan also involved axing smartphones and tablets running webOS software, including the HP TouchPad, and possibly selling off webOS. The company now plans to retain webOS and will open-source the platform's code. <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/09/hps-whitman-well-make-webos-powered-tablets-in-2013/" target="_hplink">Whitman also told TechCrunch</a> that the company aims to manufacture new webOS-powered tablets by 2013.

• BlackBerry PlayBook

  If the saga of the BlackBerry PlayBook were a book, it would be the saddest story ever told. In an odd choice, PlayBook developers excluded apps for email, contacts and calendars from a tablet that parent company RIM billed as the "<a href="http://us.blackberry.com/business/software/playbook/" target="_hplink">world's first professional-grade tablet.</a>" Popular apps for social networking and entertainment, such as Facebook and 'Angry Birds,' were also absent from the tablet at launch. To make matters worse, RIM has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/26/blackberry-playbook-os-2-delay-rim_n_1033536.html" target="_hplink">delayed the PlayBook OS 2.0 update</a>, a software upgrade critical to the tablet's survival, until February 2012. As the holidays approached, RIM <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/blackberry-playbook-price-drop_n_1107941.html" target="_hplink">slashed the price of the PlayBook</a> to $199. Just six months earlier, the tablet had launched with a $499 price tag. <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/12/rim-to-take-485-million-loss-on-playbook-inventory.html" target="_hplink">According to the Los Angeles Times,</a> RIM said in early December that it lost $485 million due to unsold PlayBooks.

• Playstation Network Outage

  In April, the Sony Playstation Network experienced a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/26/playstation-network-hacker-stole-user-data_n_854106.html" target="_hplink">massive data breach</a> that forced the company to shut down the cloud-based platform for nearly a month in order to fix the security issues. The company informed customers that the names, addresses and possibly even credit card data belonging to the PSN's more than 70 million users <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/27/sony-playstation-network-hack-how-to-protect-yourself_n_854293.html#s269979&title=Change_Your_Password" target="_hplink">had already been compromised.</a> Unfortunately, Sony had waited in silence for a week before taking the network offline. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/08/sony-hack-problems_n_873443.html" target="_hplink">Hackers continued to target the PSN</a> when Sony began bringing it back online in May. All PSN services were <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/02/playstation-store-back-online_n_870147.html" target="_hplink">fully restored by early June</a>. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/23/sony-playstation-network-hack-cost_n_865432.html" target="_hplink">According to the Associated Press,</a> Sony spent $170 million on the fallout from the debacle.

• Jawbone Up

  Coming from a company best known for bluetooth headsets and the popular <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2011/11/23/holiday-gifts-iphone-ipod-speakers_n_1110109.html" target="_hplink">Jambox speaker,</a>the November launch of<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/jawbone-unveils-up-wristband_n_1072535.html" target="_hplink"> Jawbone's Up fitness tracker</a>was <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/jawbone-unveils-up-wristband_n_1072535.html" target="_hplink">awaited with anticipation.</a> The Up was marketed as a device which, when worn around the wrist, would track the user's sleeping, eating and exercise habits, which it did -- sometimes. As the folks at Engadget, who went through two dud wristbands during their testing process, <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/06/jawbone-up-review/" target="_hplink">wrote in their review</a>: "It's a shame the Up wristband is breaking all over the place, because it's otherwise a promising idea for a gadget." <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/09/tech/gaming-gadgets/jawbone-explains-up-failures/index.html" target="_hplink">So many users reported malfunctioning devices</a> that in December Jawbone decided to refund anyone who was unhappy with their Up -- no questions asked. At that time, <a href="http://jawbone.com/up/guarantee" target="_hplink">according a statement released by Jawbone's CEO,</a> the company had "temporarily paused production" of the device to engineer a fix for two errant circuit board capacitors which appeared to be the cause of the problems.

• Motorola Xoom

  When it launched in February, Motorola billed the Xoom tablet as an iPad killer, and many people, <a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/12/2011-tech-fails-oof?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=twitterclickthru&pid=2778" target="_hplink">including Wired's Mike Isaac, really wanted that to be the truth.</a> Isaac writes, "I wanted the Xoom to kick ass. I really did. But, alas, the Xoom was all but D.O.A. before hitting retail shelves." Though the device offered promising features --Google's Android 3.0 (aka "Honeycomb") and 4G LTE connectivity -- Motorola <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/motorola-xoom-shipments-q3-2011_n_1062664.html" target="_hplink">managed to ship only 100,000 Xooms in the third quarter of 2011.</a> How many iPads shipped in the same time period? 11 million. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/26/motorola-xoom-tablet-sales-_n_853754.html" target="_hplink">Initial reviews were mainly positive</a>, but there are several reasons why the Xoom failed to thrive. Honeycomb, for one, was labeled <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/26/motorola-xoom-tablet-sales-_n_853754.html" target="_hplink">"unstable" and "incomplete"</a>. The price was also a deterrent: $600 with a two-year wireless contract, $800 without.

• Nintendo 3DS

  Nintendo's $250 glasses-free 3D portable gaming device launched globally in March to lackluster sales, thanks in part to the device's high price tag and a limited selection of 3D games. In order to boost sales, Nintendo announced in July that it would <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/28/nintendo-3ds-price-drops-from-249-to-169-august-12th-current/" target="_hplink">slash the price of the 3DS</a> down to $170. <a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/12/2011-tech-fails-oof?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=twitterclickthru&pid=2777" target="_hplink">It worked,</a> but Nintendo paid dearly for the discount. <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/242701/nintendo_takes_927_million_loss_far_worse_than_original_forecast.html" target="_hplink">In October, the Japanese game-maker said</a> it would post its first annual loss in three decades.

• Facebook Places

  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/24/facebook-axes-places-who-_n_935082.html" target="_hplink">The death of the Foursquare-esque check-in service, Facebook Places,</a> was quietly announced in August, at the end of <a href="http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150251867797131" target="_hplink">a blog post detailing Facebook's new privacy features.</a> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/19/facebook-places-features-_n_687504.html#s128538&title=How_To_Check" target="_hplink">Facebook Places was one year old. </a> The check-in service is survived by the roughly <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/24/facebook-axes-places-who-_n_935082.html" target="_hplink">30 million people who actually used it.</a> Though Places as a service flopped, Facebook began offering more location-tagging options for wall posts, photos and status updates. In December, the social network <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/facebook-gowalla_n_1129720.html" target="_hplink">acquired check-in startup Gowalla</a>. Facebook will discontinue the smaller company's mobile app and will incorporate Gowalla employees into the Timeline team to focus on more location-based features, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/02/technology/gowalla_facebook/" target="_hplink">sources told CNN Money</a>.

• Google Buzz

  In 2010, <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/introducing-google-buzz.html" target="_hplink">Google launched Buzz</a> as a way for Google users to share content across platforms like Twitter, Picasa, Flickr and Gchat. Unfortunately, most of the buzz generated by the service was negative. Shortly after the launch, some users noticed that Google Buzz made their most frequently emailed contacts public to other users. <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-10451428-256.html" target="_hplink">CNET called the glitch a "privacy nightmare." </a>Google apologized to users and <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/189329/google_apologizes_for_buzz_privacy_issues.html" target="_hplink">quickly fixed the issues,</a> but trust in the service had been irreparably damaged. In October 2011, several months after the highly successful launch of the more privacy-centric Google+ network, the web giant <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/14/google-buzz-igoogle-fall-sweep_n_1011306.html" target="_hplink">announced that it planned to shutter Google Buzz for good</a>.

• Google TV

  Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca pretty much said it all <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/11/logitech-ceo-on-google-tv-revue_n_1088168.html" target="_hplink">when he told investors in November</a> that the Revue, Logitech's Google TV set-top box, was "a mistake of implementation of a gigantic nature." <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/11/logitech-ceo-on-google-tv-revue_n_1088168.html" target="_hplink">Logitech partially blamed</a> the year's $100 million operating loss on the <a href="http://www.logitech.com/en-us/smartTV" target="_hplink">"TV of the future"</a> gamble. In July, thanks to "negative sales" (more returns than purchases), Logitech <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2389344,00.asp" target="_hplink">dropped the Revue's price from $300 to $99</a>. But Google TV project isn't dead yet. Sony is still selling its <a href="http://discover.store.sony.com/internettv/#/home" target="_hplink">smart TVs and Blu-ray players with Google TV built in</a>. In October, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/28/google-tv-v2-software-update_n_1063956.html" target="_hplink">Google TV version 2</a> began rolling out to Sony and Logitech devices. Google plans to <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/22/google-tv-is-dead-long-live-google-tv/" target="_hplink">add even more hardware partners in 2012</a>.

• Color

  Of course hindsight is 20/20, but it's still sort of fun to smirk at <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/23/color-social-network-bill-nguyen_n_839865.html" target="_hplink">this statement from a partner at Sequoia Capital,</a> one of the companies that helped Color Labs raise $41 million in funds: "Once or twice a decade a company emerges from Silicon Valley that can change everything. Color is one of those companies." Not exactly. When Color launched in March, the photo-and-video-centric location-based social networking app was immediately slammed by reviewers. <a href="http://appadvice.com/appnn/2011/03/color-app-universally-slammed-reviewer" target="_hplink">According to App Advice,</a> out of the 697 early reviews in the App Store, 70 percent had rated Color as "poor." After the initial flop <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/22/color-reborn-fused-with-facebook-the-41m-social-photo-app-is-back/" target="_hplink">Color went quiet for 6 months</a>, only to reemerge in September as a <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/color-recasts-itself-as-a-facebook-photo-and-video-app/" target="_hplink">photo and video app deeply integrated with the Facebook platform</a>. Initial reviews were <a href="http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-09-22/tech/30188331_1_mobile-app-android-facebook-friends" target="_hplink">cautiously positive.</a> <em>Image via Color</em>

• 'Duke Nukem Forever'

  After 14 years of rumors about an updated "Duke Nukem" game, the real deal underwhelmed consumers when it was finally unleashed this year. Even fans of the "Duke Nukem" franchise thought the game was rampantly mysogynistic, gross and stupid. <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2011/06/duke-nukem-forever-review-barely-playable-unfunny-and-rampantly-offensive.ars" target="_hplink">Ars Technica said in its review of the game</a> that it "makes you feel dirty." <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/10/duke-nukem-forever-review-fail-to-the-king-baby/" target="_hplink">Joystiq described</a> a sequence in which the player is tasked with "spanking a woman into submission" as "as painful as it sounds." <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/jun/10/duke-nukem-forever-game-review" target="_hplink">The Guardian called the game "shamelessly inappropriate."</a> Unsurprisingly, <a href="http://playstationlifestyle.net/2011/07/06/analysts-disappointed-in-duke-far-less-sales-than-expected/" target="_hplink">sales of "Duke Nukem Forever" were lackluster.</a> <em>Image via Flickr: i eated a cookie</em>

• Flip Cam

  In April, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/12/cisco-flip-camera-killed_n_847962.html" target="_hplink">Cisco killed the Flip camera,</a> its line of mini video-recording devices that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/technology/13flip.html" target="_hplink">The New York Times referred to as</a> "one of the great tech start-up success stories of the last decade." The move was part of a plan to restructure the company and included <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/12/cisco-flip-camera-killed_n_847962.html" target="_hplink">laying off 550 employees.</a> Cisco had purchased Pure Digital Technology Inc, the original maker of the Flip camera, in 2009 for $590 million. Although some suggested that the move was due to smartphones making mini video cameras obsolete, sales of such cameras, led by Flip, <a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/04/15/cisco-ditches-flip-camera-biz-whats-the-future-for-mini-moviem/" target="_hplink"> actually grew from $4.5 million in 2009 to $5.7 million in 2010</a>, according to a report from the Consumer Electronics Association. Though Cisco wouldn't disclose the reason for the discontinuation, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/technology/13flip.html" target="_hplink">The New York Times reported</a> that the popular Flip cam never made sense for a company known primarily for its enterprise networking services. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/technology/13flip.html" target="_hplink">As one analyst told the Times,</a> "I don't think there's an analyst on the planet who thought that Flip was a good acquisition." <em>Image via Flip</em>

Comments

[t a r]

12:19 AM on 02/28/2012

Poor 'Ol Randy ....He lost $2 million. Where will his next meal come from?
or can't make rent, whats a guy like Randy to do?
This good old boy club has to end!!!! THis CEO is not worth $20 million, maybe $3 million/year.
All he cares is about himself and his board.
I'll do the job for $500k and I'll get rid of all the board of directors and bring on some very intelligent members for $150k. The rest of the money saved will go to employees and customers.

And don't tell me to go and start my own company, Randall didn't start AT&T. He sucked up to the proper people and they believed his crap. Old Eddy Whitacre at least worked up through the ranks, but he robbed the company blind with his millions and his golden parachute.

[MSMSucksCom]

08:11 PM on 02/23/2012

And don't forget, Stephenson said BEFORE the T-Mobile acquisition was in trouble words to the affect that if the deal is not approved, he would hike rates on its customers.

AFTER the deal tanked, Stephenson said that he was in fact raising AT&T's prices and he implied it was "revenge" for the deal failing.

It is interesting, the Board tells him they are docking his pay, but then it allows him to raise prices to pay for the $4 billion acquisition breakup fee.

http://www.google.com/search?q=stephenson+prices+will+increase+due+to+T-Mobile+failed+acquisition&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

[hgus]

11:35 PM on 02/22/2012

"AT&T Inc.'s board cut CEO Randall Stephenson's 2011 pay by $2.08 million"

Wait a minute, isn't there something wrong about this? They cut his pay by 2.08 million? How much was he supposed to make?

2.08 MILLION DOLLARS!!!

I'm sorry, that is too much money for a company that had to lay off employees, or cut healthcare, or cut benefits, or reduce vacations, or to offshore jobs.

We are in a recession people! Millions of Americans are struggling and this guy takes a $2.08 billion dollar reduction in pay.

Putting aside the excessive compensation. We hear about CEOs screwing up every day and they never ever have to give up money. Why did this guy lose some personal money? Because he pissed of the wall street bankers, because the deal didn't go through.

Message, offshore jobs and lay employes, screw your customers, and the environment, but don't ever screw with Wall Street.

[thecornerangel]

11:11 PM on 02/22/2012

Yes this is a joke. Did you see the pic --- he looks like he's talking his way out of it... I guess it worked. Down to $20 M plus
Just once I would like to see a guy who mucked up something big take a real loss. How about a pay cut that's proportional to the losses he caused the company?

[skink007]

10:30 PM on 02/22/2012

It's about time these guy's are held accountable for their actions.

[hgus]

11:38 PM on 02/22/2012

How is this being held accountable? I wish my boss would hold me accountable like this. He got paid more than $18 Million!

You screwed up big, we are only going to pay you 18 million dollars. Don't do it again!

[MSMSucksCom]

08:19 PM on 02/23/2012

He is not being held accountable at all:

- He has kept his job.

- His pay has not been docked.

- The Board simply adjusted his stock options. People filthy rich like Stephenson could give a rip about this.

- It is all a back room deal, just symbolism so it looks to investors that the AT&T board did something. But at the end of the day Stephenson is still laughing, just like Reed Hastings is laughing about Netflix.

These guys really don't care, they sleep just fine at night knowing one way or the other YOU are going to keep paying their compensation packages.

In fact, worst case if a company goes bankrupt or closes its doors these guys simply move on to lay waste to another company. It is like politicians. Even if they lose an election they simply move on to being a lobbyist or overpaid head of an administrative agency.

[myline2]

02:15 PM on 02/22/2012

Please remember, Stephenson ( like all of the 1%) earned his success and is entitled to it. ONLY Unionized teachers, first responders & nurses, college professors & tireless State accountants -- those folks who earn $32K-$55k a year and support all the hairdressers, bank tellers,appliance store clerks, and daycare workers with their paychecks -- AREN'T entitled to their "cushy" salaries and benefits. Because the GOP says wealthy people are entitled to their wages and success,but the Middle Class is not.

[MSMSucksCom]

08:22 PM on 02/23/2012

I was planning on getting a good nights sleep tonight, now I am going to lay awake being upset about your calling to mind the inequities.

[really upset]

02:09 PM on 02/22/2012

The sorry piece of S--- should have been fired immediatly. Of course because he sleeps with the board members and the crony politicians it will never happen. My advise to everybody is cancel your service with ATT. Hit them like the people did to Bank of America and Netflix. By the way I will sent the CEO my next months allotment of my food stamps, I hate to see the piece of garbage take a paycut without the boardmembers taking one also. They are just as guilty as he is. Remember the CEO is only the mouthpiece of the boardmembers. Kinda like the middle man in a cirlcle jerk

[MSMSucksCom]

08:26 PM on 02/23/2012

LOL... I think I'm your first fan.

I did in fact vote with my wallet against guys like Stephenson. I moved to Straight Talk prepaid, where I get unlimited 4G on any phone (even the iPhone, if it is GSM) for $45 monthly.

You are right, voting with our wallets is all these people understand. As long as people are willing to pay $100++ for limited service, companies like AT&T will see no need to curb their money-grabbing ways.

[Wall Str33t]

01:53 PM on 02/22/2012

So his pay is down to just over 20 million.

Wow. Sad to see the rich people doing it so tough.

[fausto412]

01:47 PM on 02/22/2012

AND HE'S STILL RICH.

[cedy]

01:41 PM on 02/22/2012

Is this some kind of joke?

[John Spiller]

01:38 PM on 02/22/2012

What exactly does $2.08 million mean to an "employee" (and I use that term loosely) that has "earned" (and I use that term loosely) $38.9 million over the last two years? The words "a drop in the sea" quickly come to mind. When will boards of directors, investors, and even the media realize that it is a corporation's workforce (i.e. those employees in the trenches who roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty) who contribute, almost exclusively, to an employer's success. Executive "leaders" (and I use that term loosely), as proven time and time again, do much more harm than they do good, then get rewarded (even with pay cuts) disproportionate to their performance. To find out more about AT&T's executive incompetence, its shady ways of conducting its business, and how the corporation continues to harm the American public, please refer to the links below for a shocking and controversial book.

John Spiller is an author, entrepreneur, consumer advocate, and weathered survivor of corporate America. His new book is titled The Ampersand Diaries: AT&T and the Life Lessons Learned from the Trenches of an American Icon. It is now available at http://www.amazon.com/ or on his Amazon-based website http://www.createspace.com/3598985 which features a detailed description of the book’s contents.

[meccano]

01:36 PM on 02/22/2012

DROPPED CALL

[Silask]

01:34 PM on 02/22/2012

AT&T is on the road to self-destruction. First, the incompetence of its executive leadership along with its board demonstrates that it does not have the talent or integraty to manage the organization.
Second, this company cannot even program a payment system that allows one to pay on one bill AT&T, AT&T Versa and Wireless on one payment with ease of online payment.

What a bunch of incompetitants.

Shareholders, SELL YOUR STOCK before the big collapse comes.

[ALECTRO]

01:27 PM on 02/22/2012

And he still earns $18.2 Million?

There is no manager living or dead who could possibly contribute enough value to any firm to justify an $18 million dollar annual pay.

This is money stolen from the stockholders. Why don't they complain?

[Tony Twohill]

11:30 PM on 02/22/2012

Because they're delusional. They buy into this nonsense that you need to pay top dollar for good CEO talent.
Then they turn around and say that you DON'T need to pay top dollar for talent in middle managers.
Somehow that makes sense to them, despite American corporations being among the few countries in the world that use a similar compensation model. At the same time, foreign corporations that use a more modest CEO payment schedule are performing just as well if not better than their American counterparts.
Go figure.

[Michigan Tim]

01:21 PM on 02/22/2012

The guy loses over $4 billion for the company and yet they still pay him $18.7 million. Boy, they sure cracked the whip with him.They should have fired him.