https://wccftech.com/att-tries-to-placate-activist-investor-amid-a-roaring-campaign-for-change/

Wall Street Journal has reported that AT&T (NYSE:T) is currently negotiating with the activist investor Elliott Management Corp. in a bid to cool down the investor’s ongoing campaign aimed at bringing about significant changes at the telecommunication and media conglomerate.

The two sides have been discussing Elliott’s casus belli ever since the investor revealed, about five weeks ago, its acquisition of a 1 percent stake in AT&T that amounted to $3.2 billion. Elliott Management detailed its points of contention with the company’s management in a publicized letter which criticized AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of TimeWarner Inc. last year and the 2015 purchase of satellite television provider DirecTV for $49 billion (read the related coverage here). The investor considers AT&T’s decision to move into the media business as ill-advised given that some of these high-profile acquisitions have not been performing well recently, as exemplified by DirecTV which continues to grapple with a shrinking subscription base. Consequently, Elliott Management wants AT&T to conduct a strategic review of units that do not fit its long-term strategy – DirectTV and Mexican wireless operations in particular – and shuffle the board of directors with the activist investor going so far as to already having “identified several leading candidates” for board positions.