AT&T Swats Away Proposals

AT&T filed its 2007 proxy this month and, in what’s becoming an annual ritual, swatted away several shareholder proposals aimed at improving its compensation and governance practices.

While AT&T management purports to take these requests seriously, the whole exercise reminds me of my ritualistic exchanges with my teenage son in which he demands an iPhone and I pretend actually to consider this, meanwhile thinking to myself: “Ha! Over my cold dead corpse, kid, even if it didn’t involve AT&T service.”

AT&T has been busy these last couple of years, completing high-profile mergers with SBC Communications and BellSouth.

Last year also brought big change to the executive suite, with 47-year-old Randall L. Stephenson replacing longtime Chairman and CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr. But the firm still appears locked into a compensation mindset that will keep its more activist investors hot and bothered.

Personal Benefits

Everything is relative, so Stephenson’s total take of nearly $22 million for 2007 looks modest next to Whitacre’s $78 million (though almost $74 million of that came in stock awards). Of course, Stephenson’s promotion to CEO came halfway through the year, so his overloaded ship hasn’t fully come in yet.

Well, perhaps we should forget that ship cliché, since last year he racked up $90,000 in personal travel on the company plane and $21,000 in “auto benefits.” And when not in transit, he got to enjoy $10,000 in club memberships and $15,000 in home security protection.

The proxy labels only certain perks as “personal” benefits and, rather oddly, puts in the nonpersonal category the cash some executives got to help them pay taxes.

In the case of former AT&T Mobility head Stanley T. Sigman, these “tax reimbursements” topped $1 million. I’m not sure I get this reasoning, and if AT&T pays my taxes I plan to send them a warm and personal thank you note.

Family Matters

Speaking of personal touches, I find it a little embarrassing when a large and sophisticated company provides jobs to its executives’ kinfolk. AT&T subsidiaries already employ Whitacre’s son-in-law, Sigman’s brother and the daughter of Senior Executive Vice President James W. Callaway. Per the latest proxy, the brother of Global Business Solutions head Ronald Spears has joined the crew, so there’ll be one more family reunion at the next AT&T company picnic.

Wendy Fried, a freelance writer, is a contributing editor at footnoted.org and also blogs about matters corporate at her own site, proxyland.blogspot.com.