About Randall Stephenson
Randall Stephenson, former chairman and CEO of AT&T, has spoken publicly about the company's strategy regarding its proposed merger with Time Warner, 5G technology, and broader economic policy. In 2016 testimony before a Senate subcommittee, Stephenson argued that the merger would benefit consumers by providing more choices and lower-priced options, and he stated that AT&T would not withhold Time Warner content to disadvantage competitors. He also said that AT&T had been the largest investor in the United States for five consecutive years and that he expected that to continue. At the 2019 FinTech Ideas Festival, Stephenson discussed the potential of 5G networks, stating that the technology would enable precise location tracking of devices within centimeters, which he said could change how authentication and identity are handled in digital transactions.
Stephenson has also addressed social and political issues. In a 2018 interview, he discussed a 2016 speech he gave to AT&T employees about Black Lives Matter, saying he was glad it went viral because it initiated conversations about race within the company and among other CEOs. On economic policy, he stated in 2016 that a 2% growth rate was "unacceptable" and called for tax reform and the approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to stimulate growth. He also noted that regulatory and tax policies had influenced AT&T's investment decisions, including its expansion into Mexico.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Randall Stephenson's recent appearances.
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✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Reporter0:18
About it, do you have any response?
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Randall Stephenson0:20
I have nothing to respond to. Haven't announced anything about DirecTV.
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Reporter0:24
Some analysts are saying that regulators could block it because of the overlap of video universe. What are your concerns about it?
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Randall Stephenson0:30
What are my concerns about it? I guess the way we do it, and the way the market read the filing, what you would see is we are a bundle company. We bundle broadband and TV. We have something like less than 140,000 standalone TV subscribers. DirecTV is in the standalone TV business. Don't even... So we're in a situation where broadband product, we need a profitable product. You put the two companies together, it's very beneficial for the consumer. You read the filing very show. It says 15 million broadband over ticket.
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Reporter1:30
That's Greg TV? Negotiating that? Mr. Stevenson, what is a priority? How much of a priority is a foreign acquisition for AT&T, like Europe or South America, even emerging markets? Is that something you're looking at? Those rumors you're looking at SoftBank or Com? And the reason I'm really one of the main reasons I'm enthusiastic about DirecTV is they have a very great Latin American business. They have 18 million video subscribers in Latin America, so we're really excited about having access to that. And Africa and other emerging markets. Is that somewhere where you grow?
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Randall Stephenson1:57
My right now is on DirecTV and getting that approved over the next year.
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Reporter2:03
Mr. Stevenson, what merger conditions do you expect the FCC might place on the DirecTV deal?
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Randall Stephenson2:07
It's too early to talk about it. We committed to some concessions or conditions. First, we'll build 15 million broadband households that we were not planning to build before. Second is standalone pricing of GV. We committed we'll price it only on a nationwide basis. And then the third is we'll commit to leaving a standalone broadband product out there and commit to pricing on that for customers who just want Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, or those kind.
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Reporter2:35
How many customers were implicated in the security breach you guys had? Plus week? I don't really answer to that. Wireless consolidation, what do you think is driving it? I mean, Comcast about mobile. How do you see what's happening?
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Randall Stephenson2:52
Yeah, there's a lot of different things going on. It's kind of hard to lump them all together into one bundle. Like Comcast Time Warner, that's a class A cable company buying another cable company. Sprint T-Mobile is a wireless company buying another wireless company. Ours is we're basically a mobility and broadband.
