John Stankey will have more than AT&T’s newly acquired WarnerMedia to consider in the near future.
The longtime AT&T executive was named on Tuesday to be the company’s president and chief operating officer, a move aimed at bolstering the telecommunications giant’s ranks in the wake of the announced retirement of John Donovan, the head of AT&T Communications who was long seen as the company’s No. 2 executive. Stankey will continue to run WarnerMedia, but will now have oversight of AT&T’s ad-tech unit, Xandr, and the AT&T Communications unit, which includes DirecTV and the company’s wireless operations.
The move would seem to set Stankey up as a potential successor to Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s Chairman & CEO. ““Now is the time to more tightly align our collection of world-class content, scaled consumer relationships, technical know-how and innovative advertising technology,” said Stephenson, in a prepared statement. “It’s the natural next step in bringing together the distinct and complimentary capabilities of AT&T Communications, WarnerMedia and Xandr to deliver for consumers the benefits of a modern media company.”
More to come…