AT&T Gives Activist Hedge Fund Satisfaction

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Maybe it’s the Texas accent, reminiscent of George W. Bush in his first term. Randall Stephenson, the longtime boss of AT&T, positively swaggers across the business stage. He grabs companies in adjacent industries. He changes out ‘ole Ma Bell’s business model altogether. He inserts his own fellas to run his expensively acquired trophies. He loads debt onto his balance sheet like a stagecoach piled high with luggage.

He did, anyway, until Stephenson ran into the city slickers from Elliott Management. As Coins2Day’s Jen Wieczner memorably detailed a couple of years back, these are some nasty Wall Street hombres. They go after foreign governments, global conglomerates, and industrial behemoths. A highly leveraged phone company proved to be little match.
AT&T reached a deal Monday with Elliott. It agreed to add new board members, buy back shares, and forswear big acquisitions. Elliott promised little in return but presumably is appeased by the moves.

The issue here isn’t if AT&T’s strategy is a good one or if Elliott plays fair. AT&T finances its business in the public capital markets, meaning that a well-organized shareholder gets to make its voice heard.

Verizon, the closest overlapping competitor to AT&T before the latter bought Time Warner, will make for a fascinating comparison as time goes by. As AT&T has over-indexed on entertainment, Verizon has doubled down on telecommunications. So far, Verizon has done better for investors over the past two years, even taking into account AT&T’s bump Monday.

And companies like AT&T, NBC Universal, Apple, Netflix (and so on) must have spit up their coffee Monday reading about Disney’s shock-and-awe marketing campaign (which includes partnering with Verizon) to promote its new Disney+ streaming service. Oh my.

Adam Lashinsky

On Twitter: @adamlashinsky

Email: [email protected]

This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman.

NEWSWORTHY

Sticking it to the man. Hundreds of Facebook employees sent a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg complaining about the company's recently announced policy to carry political ads with false claims. "We remain committed to not censoring political speech, and will continue exploring additional steps we can take to bring increased transparency," a spokesperson for the company said.

Nice work, if you can get it. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in Asia, moved to extend his business empire into e-commerce. Ambani's Reliance Industries put $15 billion into a new digital services unit to fund an e-commerce push connected to its popular Reliance Jio mobile phone service.

Checking for a heartbeat. Flailing Fitbit investors may get a bailout of sorts. Shares in the beleaguered fitness tracker maker jumped 31% on Monday amid rumors that Google has made an acquisition offer. But even at $5.64 after Monday's gain, Fitbit's share price remains 72% below its 2015 IPO price. Speaking of wearables, Apple announced its long-rumored update to AirPods. Dubbed AirPods Pro, the bulkier earbuds will cost $249 and offer active noise cancellation.

Downward dog. On Wall Street, it was a day of disappointments, large and small. Google reported sales rose 20% to $40.5 billion, slightly better than expected, but earnings per share of $10.12 were a few dollars short, thanks to a surprise write down of startup investments. Google's stock price, up 23% so far this year, lost 1% in pre-market trading on Tuesday. Food delivery startup Grubhub was a much bigger bust, reporting revenue increased 30% to $322 million while profits of 1 cent a share reflected a 94% decline from a year earlier. Both figures shocked analysts and Grubhub's shares, already down 24% in 2019, plunged another 34% in pre-market trading on Tuesday morning.

Robot chicken. The latest issue of our new newsletter, Eye on A.I., hits later today. Subscribe now to get your copy of the in-depth take on the artificial intelligence scene.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Every parent I know tries to limit their kids' screen time. That's backed by the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics and numerous studies. But psychologist Andrew Przybylski, director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute, doesn't agree. His just-published study examined data from 35,000 kids and concluded that digital device usage improved social and emotional skills. MIT Technology Review reporter Tanya Basu compares the new study with older research and finds more questions than answers.

Coming to a consensus view is going to be difficult. That’s at least in part because childhood development is complex and influenced by all sorts of interwoven factors. It would be very difficult to control for all those variables in studying the effects of time spent in front of screens—which can host all manner of content. It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that research on the topic has proved mostly inconclusive, with each new study adding its own confusing twist.

ON THE MOVE

A few departures of note...Facebook VP of advertising Rob Goldman is leaving the company after seven years...Spotify's CFO, Barry McCarthy, will retire early in 2020 and be replaced by Paul Vogel, currently head of investor relations...White House computer security chief Dimitrios Vistakis resigned and blasted the Trump administration in a memo as he walked out the door.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

A.I. Vs. The Wolves of Wall Street By Jonathan Vanian

Can Virtual Reality Teach Executives What It Feels Like to Be Excluded? By Emma Hinchliffe

Spotify Found a Surprising Way to Convert Free Users to Paying Customers: Even More Freebies By Lisa Marie Segarra

SEC Ushers in New Era By Allowing Blockchain-Based Stock Settlement By Jeff John Roberts

Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Pumps the Brakes on Autonomous Vehicles By Chris Morris

China Prepares to Launch Its Own Digital Currency as Facebook’s Libra Languishes By Naomi Xu Elegant

BEFORE YOU GO

Just in time for Halloween, the Hubble Space Telescope has spotted what NASA is calling a spooky "face," actually two galaxies colliding and merging. The image resembles a creepy space monster staring back at Earth. I sense both costume and GIF potential here.

Aaron Pressman

On Twitter:@ampressman

Email: [email protected]

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