AT&T

2019 SEEMS like a lifetime ago for AT&T. Shares in the owner of Warnermedia and Directv appreciated 45.6% in the 12 months ending in December — then lost almost all those gains in the Covid-infected first quarter of 2020. But the calendar year is what counted in the compensation calculations for CEO Stephenson and chief operating officer Stankey — who oversees Warnermedia and will replace Stephenson in July. The outcomes mask what a turbulent period it was for the world’s most indebted company. The telco had to replace the heads of Warner Bros., HBO and Turner in 2019. Stephenson’s and Stankey’s careers also looked endangered when billionaire Paul Singer’s activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. bought a major stake in AT&T and chastised it for failing to reverse the two-year collapse in its stock price. A truce was reached after AT&T promised to spend billions on stock repurchases — a vow it broke this year when the economy tanked. The deal bolstered the stock, and Stephenson’s bonus. Stankey benefited even more from the board’s decision to benchmark his compensation to what it diplomatically calls “the unique pay practices in the media and entertainment industry” — including big spenders Comcast, CBS, AMC Networks and Discovery. In June 2018, when AT&T bought Time Warner, directors boosted Stankey’s shortterm incentive bonus target by 252% to $7.4 million. The higher target was in effect for all of 2019 versus half of 2018. The board also figured that he deserved 102% of the target, up from 88%. That more than made up for the loss of the $2 million “merger completion bonus” the company gave him in 2018.