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WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey Promoted to Added Roles of AT&T President, COO

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...y-add-roles-titles-at-t-president-coo-1236185


Overseeing various units, he will report to AT&T chair and CEO Randall Stephenson, who says: "Now is the time to more tightly align our collection of world-class content, scaled consumer relationships, technical know-how and innovative advertising technology."
AT&T said Tuesday that WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey will take on the additional roles of president and chief operating officer of AT&T, effective Oct. 1.

The telecom giant said this was "a new position reporting to Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO." Stankey will continue serving as CEO of WarnerMedia.
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Effective October 1st.
 
Investors have no say, eh? Tell that to the many legions of management that have been forced to make decisions at the impetus of investors or who have been ousted for failing to do so.
 
umfan said:
Investors have no say, eh? Tell that to the many legions of management that have been forced to make decisions at the impetus of investors or who have been ousted for failing to do so.
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A single stockholder with 1% has no standing against 99% of the other stockholders. If he gets a large group to join him, he might have some impact.

In the case of Lew Dickey, he was ousted by the Board of Directors, specifically by members who controlled a large amount of the company's debt.

This stockholder doesn't have a position on the AT&T board.
 
I have to believe you didn't look at the size of the investment, and the ability of this investor to align other institutions to get himself or his designee's on the board.

I must seriously ask, did you read the article? If you had, I doubt you would've referenced a single share or sub 1% position.
 
umfan said:
I have to believe you didn't look at the size of the investment,
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I read the article. Yes its over $3 billion. So what? The article says it's a 1% stake. It's in the first sentence: "Activist hedge fund manager Elliott Management is making a new $3.2 billion investment in AT&T, roughly a 1% stake, and calling for changes at the company such as selling assets and paying down debt."

My question to him is why buy this many shares if you disagree with the direction of the company? That's why I say it's political, not financial. Companies have ways of dealing with this kind of thing. Believe me, I've seen it before.
 
https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/warnermedia-distribution-chiefs-sofia-chang-rich-warren-1203330346/

More leadership changes at AT&T.

WarnerMedia has tapped company veterans Sofia Chang and Rich Warren to oversee distribution for HBO, the nascent HBO Max streaming service and the Turner channels.

The appointments of Chang and Warren as president of WarnerMedia Distribution come as part of the continuing shakeup of HBO and Turner operations following AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner last year.

In March, former Turner International chief Gerhard Zeiler was promoted to WarnerMedia chief revenue officer and president of WarnerMedia International Networks. Chang and Warren report to Zeiler. The two will be tasked with garnering digital and linear distribution partners for the nascent HBO Max streaming service, targeted for debut next spring.
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Investors such as this buy shares to influence management to start making decisions to realize the value of the company, i.e. don't keep underperforming assests or to install management that will and raise the stock price. Shareholders do own the company after all, or don't you realize that?
 
If that was the case, then the recently departed T. Boone Pickens and Carl Ichan could not have forced management to bend so far to their wills with similar stakes.

AT&T management will have no choice but to listen to this investor.
 
I hope they're able to pressure AT&T to sell to someone who will put a stop to all the contract disputes. The only thing worse would be if they merged with Dish.
 
anotherguy said:
I hope they're able to pressure AT&T to sell to someone who will put a stop to all the contract disputes. The only thing worse would be if they merged with Dish.
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The contract disputes are to keep subscription costs down. Otherwise they'd just keep going up. Someone needs to hold the line on companies like Disney.
 
TheBigA said:
The contract disputes are to keep subscription costs down. Otherwise they'd just keep going up. Someone needs to hold the line on companies like Disney.
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I'll admit that in a lot of these disputes both sides are equally guilty and greedy, But DirecTV and Dish are the worst offenders in most cases.
 
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/jeff-zucker-seen-top-internal-candidate-warnermedia-ceo-n1058101


Jeff Zucker is named as a candidate to be the CEO of Warner Media.

Jeff Zucker’s meteoric rise in the media industry may not be over yet.

Zucker, the president of CNN, is now the leading — if not the only — internal candidate being considered to become chief executive of WarnerMedia, the new conglomeration owned by AT&T that includes Warner Bros., HBO and Turner Broadcasting, according to five high-level WarnerMedia sources. He is currently the head of news and sports for WarnerMedia.

AT&T, which is trying to fend off an activist investor and figure out its executive succession plan, could still tap someone from outside the company. But the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said Zucker has emerged as the one internal name to take the WarnerMedia CEO job if its current chief, John Stankey, becomes CEO of AT&T.

Selecting Zucker to lead WarnerMedia would present significant risks for AT&T, both because he had a troubled tenure at NBCUniversal and because of his relationship with President Donald Trump, all five sources said. Still, in an industry where experienced and decisive leaders are hard to come by, Zucker could be a powerful force to lead WarnerMedia in a fiercely competitive Hollywood landscape.
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Zucker is not going to be promoted within AT&T/Warner. Most likely this rumor was fed by his own underlings.

I could see them giving him a useless title like Vice Chairman or something until his contract is up with no real increase in pay and effectively eliminating his responsibility.

Zucker has been such a complete and utter train wreck at CNN that no established media company will give him a position of any importance. Some start up might hire him thinking his notoriety might help, but even that's unlikely. He's basically done when his contract is.

Stankey is likely the most likely internal candidate to succeed Stephenson unless there is someone from the AT&T Network side, which is also a possibility.

I doubt the AT&T Board would be looking to promote anyone from the Warner side to the CEO/Chairman job(s) as the acquisition can charitably be called challenged.
 
https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/warnermedia-hbo-max-key-executive-appointments-1203354046/

WarnerMedia announced several operational executive appointments for HBO Max, its premium service teed up to enter the streaming wars next year, under the leadership of Otter Media CEO Tony Goncalves.

HBO Max is slated to launch in the spring of 2020, with some 10,000 hours of content, including originals, library titles and licensed programming. WarnerMedia hasn’t announced pricing.

As previously announced, Goncalves reports to Robert Greenblatt, chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-To-Consumer. Goncalves leads the team handling product design, customer experience and lifecycle, acquisition and retention marketing, data reporting and insights, business development, and go-to-market strategy and business operations.
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More changes at AT&T's Warner Media division.
 
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