AT&T Gets Rung Up by an Activist, Deservedly
A string of big M&A has left the media and entertainment giant unwieldy, inefficient and unfocused. It’s time an investor spoke up.
AT&T has a lot of balls in the air, and its juggling act needs work.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/BloombergPlease, AT&T, no more giant mergers and acquisitions. Wall Street is begging you.
That was one of the main messages in a letter Monday morning to AT&T Inc.’s board from Jesse Cohn, the head of U.S. activist investing at Elliott Management Corp. who is pressuring the communications and media conglomerate to get its act together. AT&T’s share price and reputation have been dragged down by troubles stemming from its ill-advised takeover of DirecTV in 2015 and its subsequent megadeal last year for Time Warner, which has yet to bear fruit. AT&T’s core wireless business continues to perform well, but it’s being overshadowed by CEO Randall Stephenson’s perplexing decision to expand into areas beyond his and the company’s expertise. And it’s making this push at a time when others from Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp. to Verizon Communications Inc. are looking to exit media and pay-TV assets or otherwise streamline their businesses.