Randall also overpaid for a declining DirecTV business on TOP of handing T-Mobile FOUR BILLION DOLLARS. He RETAINED his job and RETIRED FROM THE COMPANY TO THE TUNE OF A $64 MILLION PENSION.
Sixty. Four. Million. Dollar. Pension.
After putting a company in BILLION if dollars in DEBT.
After firing and dismissing THOUSANDS of employees who have given their lives to the company.
After ALL of that, he walks out the door to a round of applause from the Board and SIXTY FOUR MILLION DOLLARS.
He flew the jumbo-jet telecom right into the ground. And walked away one of the richest CEO’s of all time.
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We won’t have to wait until 2035 for that case study. Now that T-Mobile is now is the #2 wireless provider, I would bet Randy’s $4B gift to them came in handy with their merger. How long will it take Dish to become #3?
The sad part is that for those people in sales -if they lose a major account and several $M in revenue they are shown the door or demoted, I think Randall got a small hand slap and lost some bonus $$
Year 2011 may be the turning point year for our country’s telecom industry landscape when Stephenson/Stankey failed the T-Mobile merge with AT&T paying the $4B fine (imagine how much extra price promotion can be offered by T-Mobile with this kind of windfall money). Failed merger is not uncommon and is forgivable, however the scale of $4B fine is unbelievable and will be a historical record. Note the same Stephenson is the Whitacre’s CFO experienced with many SBC’s famous telecom mergers with Pacific Telesis, Ameritech and BellSouth.
That was a long time ago, and yet everyone here decided to stick around and look how it turned out.
Why wait, do it now. When was the last time a paid Harvard Business School PhD gave a talk about the T's glorious leadership? They can sell more HBR by telling the truth about Randy, Stank and clone troopers. I would be glad to buy a copy and share it with friend and family.