Elliott starts calling for AT&T CEOs head – report

Elliott Management, the activist investor which steamrolled into the AT&T business, has reportedly called for the replacement of CEO Randall Stephenson.

Stephenson, who has been running the telco since 2007, will hopefully have seen this move coming. The vulture fund has somewhat of an action-plan template when attempting to cause chaos, and a complete restructure of the management team is a tried and testing phase of the battleplan.

According to Fox News, Elliott Management is not only calling for the resignation of Stephenson, it is requesting it be made responsible for sourcing his replacement and demanding representatives on the Board of Directors.

After announcing it had snapped up a $3.2 billion stake in the telco, Elliott Management set to work. As with other companies the vulture fund has invested in, the objective is disruption, slimming back the focus of the business to realise value for the shareholder. This value will take the form of increased dividends and a bump in share price.

The first phase of the Elliott Management plan has already been set into play. Uncertainty has been placed in the mind of investors with the suggestion of a new strategy for AT&T. Elliott did the same at Telecom Italia when it bought its way into the debate. At AT&T, this is a divestment in the media business and a refocus on more traditional telco business activities.

The second and third phases of the disruptive battleplan are plain for everyone to see here. Elliott Management wants to appoint friendlies on the Board of Directors, and it wants to reform the executive team. Both of these phases of the plan will put the right people in the right place to act as internal champions of the Elliott Management approach to telecommunications.

The strategy being proposed is a very simple one, though it will fundamentally alter the direction of the AT&T business. Through the acquisition of both DirecTV and Time Warner, AT&T was looking like a digital services giant with connectivity at the route of the various different products. Elliott Management wants to get rid of these added value components.

Let’s not underestimate or underappreciate how much of a drastic change to the AT&T business this is.

How this saga will evolve remains to be seen. Perhaps the content businesses will be spun-off. One insider is suggesting a JV with a private equity partner and Dish. Some might assume this would be a complete divestment. Maybe a spin-off and an IPO is on the cards to recover funds and reduce AT&T debt?

There are a lot of options, but AT&T will fundamentally be a different business. It will be one which is focused on the commoditised business of connectivity. However, if Elliott Management want to succeed in their ambition, they will need some internal friendlies at the telco. For Stephenson and other executives, this might well mean a new job.