“AT&T Inc.’s chief executive, Randall Stephenson, saw the value of his pay package fall 17 percent to $15 million in 2008, a reduction he asked for as heavy iPhone subsidies ate into earnings and the company lays off thousands of workers,” Jordan Robertson reports for The Associated Press.
“The Dallas-based company said Tuesday in a regulatory filing that Stephenson asked the board not to pay him a bonus for 2008 because of the recession and AT&T’s plans to cut 12,000 jobs, or 4 percent of its work force. The job cuts, which will happen throughout 2009, were triggered by the economic crisis and the continued erosion of AT&T’s landline telephone business,” Robertson reports. “Meanwhile, the wireless division keeps winning new subscribers, and iPhone sales are hot.”
“AT&T said in a preliminary proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that compensation for its executive officers fell 44 percent from 2007 to 2008, even as sales and profits increased,” Robertson reports. “The economy and a change in AT&T’s contract with Apple Inc. over the iPhone hurt the company’s ability to meet its profit targets, AT&T said.”
Since the iPhone 3G debuted for sale last summer, AT&T “subsidizes the cost of the iPhone to lure more customers and make more money off their contracts — iPhone customers pay about $100 per month for service, giving AT&T the industry’s highest revenue per wireless subscriber. The new arrangement is more in line with the industry practices, but AT&T doesn’t expect the change to boost earnings until 2010,” Robertson reports.
Robertson reports, “For all of 2008, AT&T earned $12.9 billion, up from $12.0 billion the year before. Sales rose to $124 billion from $119 billion.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]
