AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is stepping down after leading the telecommunications giant for 13 years.
The Dallas company named John Stankey as chief executive effective July 1.
Stankey, 57, has been president and chief operating officer since October 2019. He joined AT&T in 1985.
Stephenson, 60, will stay on as executive chairman until January 2021. During his tenure, Stephenson transformed the former Ma Bell into a conglomerate with the acquisition of DirecTV and the $81 billion acquisition of Time Warner.
His retirement last year was postponed after an activist investor questioned the elevation of Stankey and pushed for other changes. That dispute was settled in October. At that time the company said Stephenson would stay on at least through 2020.
AT&T is trying to adapt to the shift to streaming video, as subscribers to traditional cable and satellite TV services fall. In May, it's launching HBO Max, a $15-a-month streaming service that will marry HBO shows with original programs and TV shows and movies from WarnerMedia. AT&T also has an online package that started as a cheaper service with fewer channels than a traditional bundle, but it is shedding customers after price increases. AT&T is now trying to downplay that service in favor of the new AT&T TV.
Like many companies it has also had results hurt by the pandemic. On Wednesday the company said revenue fell nearly 5% to $42.9 billion in the first quarter, and it withdrew its financial guidance for the year. The virus hurt results by $600 million due to canceled sports events like the March Madness college basketball tournament.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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