Longtime AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson stepped down from his position on April 24, two days after a modest earnings report for the company showed mixed results.
Stephenson, who had been slated to be replaced until after 2020, will be replaced earlier than expected by his deputy and head of WarnerMedia, John Stankey.
Stephenson leaves behind a legacy of building AT&T from a phone company to an enormous media company, with acquisitions of DirecTV and Time Warner during his career. Those television deals, however, have been turning sour for the telecommunications company, as paid subscribers continue to leave by the hundreds of thousands each quarter in favor of digital competitors like Netflix and Disney.
AT&T’s HBO has positioned itself as a competitor in this digital streaming space, and the release of HBO Max on May 27 could serve to bolster the company’s presence amidst Netflix, Disney+ and others.
A recent earnings report shows the company doing moderately well given the COVID-19 circumstances, gaining over 160,000 new phone subscribers while losing an expected 890,000 TV subscribers. AT&T still holds the most debt out of any nonfinancial corporation in the world with roughly $150 billion, but consistent revenue streams and a healthy 7 percent dividend are why most experts consider the company on the right track for the future – despite a falling stock price.
