AT&T is an American public company registered in the New York States Exchange as T, trading as Down Jones or S&P 500 Component. This company operates in the domestic telecommunication services industry and employs over two hundred and ninety five thousand people in the United States alone. This public corporation is steered by Randall Stephenson, its chief executive officer and president, who had once served in the position of chief finance officer before his appointment to this senior position (AT&T, p. 1, 2011). This paper discusses the top management of AT&T in addition to what makes it outstanding.
The AT&T Public Company
This company boasts of being the largest communications holding company by revenue, offering the most advanced global communication networks and carrying nearly twenty four petabytes of data traffic in one regular business day. This corporation is also the major provider of mobile and fixed telephony, in addition to broadband and subscription television services in the United States. It has also been ranked as the twentieth largest mobile operator globally, with nearly one hundred million mobile phone customers and subscribers. This company and its subsidiaries, which include AT&T Teleholdings, BellSouth, and Southwestern Bell, provide wireless communication services in addition to selling wirelessly enabled communication gadgets like computers, data cards and other accessories. This corporation, which was founded in October 1983, has its headquarters in Whiteacre, Dallas in the state of Texas. This company employs nearly two hundred and ninety five thousand people in America and made nearly 124.28 billion dollars in revenue by the end of 2010.
This company is an international force to reckon with in the telecommunications industry, and its presence is not about to end soon. This is because it provides a variety of services, which are extremely vital for most businesses across the globe. It has a firm grip of the American telecommunications industry and has become a near monopoly of this sector. Apart from its presence in the industry, this company is also the seventh largest company in the United States with respect to total revenue generation. This wide revenue base ensures continuity of business. The presence it has garnered in the international market, specifically in the Asian Pacific, together with the large amount of revenue it makes each year, makes its future positive and highly successful.
Financial Highlights
This company’s revenue has been relatively flat at 111.2 billion dollars and 113.2 billion dollars in 2010 and 2009 despite having a growth in net income from twelve billion dollars in 2009 to twenty dollars in 2010 (Business Week, 2011). AT&T Corporation is listed in the New York Stock Exchange as T but it trades as Down Jones Component and as S&P component. The prices of its shares are 28.84 dollars per share and 3.30 earnings per share, which are the latest facts about it. In addition, this company has P/E ratio of 8.73 and employs nearly two hundred and ninety five thousand people in all its subsidiaries. The most recent price of this company’s shares is 28.84 dollars with a high of 28.96 and a low of 28.47dollars respectively. The market capitalization for this corporation is set at 170,905.8 million dollars with the latest outstanding shares being 5,926 million dollars.
For investors who might have bought the shares of this company a year ago and sold them yesterday, their one year holding period return would have been a fifty percent increase. The dividend amount stands at four hundred and thirty with the dividend rate being 1.72 and the yield standing at six.
Top Management Information
The top management of this firm comprises of Randall Stephenson who is the chief executive officer, chairman and president of this multinational corporation together with the presidents of its three subsidiaries (Business Week, 2011). John Stephens, the chief financial officer; also forms part of this executive team that runs this company (Business Week, 2011). Randall Stephenson had served once as the chief financial officer and chief operating officer before rising to the position of the chief executive officer. His rise from a chief finance officer to a CEO is in line with the common trend today of booming CFO’s for the position of CEO’s (Brewis, 1993, p. 1).
Since Stephenson rose to the position of the chief of AT&T in 2007, he has strengthened this company’s position as a global leader in mobile broadband IP-based communication services in business. During the period he has been in this position, he has improved this company in terms of advanced television services and has made it a leader in local search advertising services. In addition, he also introduced the largest education initiative in the history of this company of one hundred dollars to strengthen its labor force and students’ success across the United States. The chief financial officer of this firm is John Stephens who is responsible for directing activities like investment management, financial planning, accounting, auditing, tax, investor and shareholder relations in this corporation. Previously, he worked as the controller and was responsible for business planning, regulatory reporting, accounting policy and financial reporting.
In conclusion, AT&T Inc, which is the largest provider of fixed and mobile telephony, broadband and subscription services in the United States, has achieved its success because of effective management. The top officials, comprising of the former CFO who rose to the position of chief executive officer, the current CFO and the president of his 3 subsidiaries, have worked really hard to take the company where it is now. This company ranked as the seventh largest public corporation in the United States is registered in the New York Stock Exchange as T but it trades under different names, which are Down Jones and S&P components.
References
AT&T. (2011). Corporate governance. Web.
Brewis, J. (1999). How a CFO can graduate to a CEO. Corporate Finance, 175, 1-13.
Business Week. (2011). Telecommunication service sector diversified telecommunication service industry; AT&T Inc (T:New York). Web.