AT&T CEO: No plans to roll back DEI to gain Trump administration's approval of new $5.75 billion deal
AT&T (T) CEO John Stankey isn't showing his hand yet on whether he plans to dial back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to gain approval for a big new fiber deal from the Trump administration.
"We don't have to roll back anything. Our policies and our approach at AT&T have always been that we progress people on merit. That any employee that comes to work here should have an opportunity to grow their career, work on building their skills, have an opportunity to succeed and earn a living," Stankey told me on Yahoo Finance (video above).
"And our goal is to make sure that every employee that walks through the door of AT&T feels like they belong here and it's a good place for them to work," Stankey added. "And I'm pretty confident that anybody who examines our practices and how we run the business is going to come to that same conclusion."
AT&T said late Wednesday it would acquire all of Lumen Technologies' (LUMN) fiber business for $5.75 billion, above the already pricey $5.5 billion that deal watchers estimated a few weeks ago. The transaction is aimed at igniting a fire under AT&T's lucrative fiber business, in part by providing bundled packages to consumers of mobile and broadband services at higher prices.
Lumen Technologies stock rose 2%, while AT&T fell slightly as investors digested the transaction.
Stankey said the deal is tailor-made for what the Trump administration wants to see: the creation of US jobs.
"We're investing in great infrastructure that makes the US economy more competitive. We're going into footprints and markets where the previous owner didn't have the wherewithal and capability to do that," he explained.
Lumen has about 1 million fiber customers spanning metro markets such as Denver, Las Vegas, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. The business is on track to generate $750 million in revenue this year.
"We think this appears to be a positive strategic move for AT&T it provides incremental footprint to build fiber and drive a converged bundle offering where these assets appear to be under-penetrated," KeyBanc Capital Markets telecom analyst Brandon Nispel said in a note.
AT&T sees the deal being immaterial to sales and earnings 12 to 24 months after closing but accretive in the long term. The company said the deal will help it reach 60 million households with fiber by 2030.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026 — with the emphasis on expected.
Telecom players have recently been expanding fiber businesses through acquisitions to challenge traditional cable operator Comcast. But to pass the deals by the Trump administration and new FCC Chair Brendan Carr, the companies have had to claw back DEI initiatives per the administration's crackdown.
Verizon (VZ) closed its $20 billion acquisition of fiber play Frontier last week. To gain approval, however, the company said it would no longer have any HR roles or teams focused on DEI and will remove references to the term from employee training materials.
Similar concessions were made by T-Mobile (TMUS) so that it could move forward with a joint venture with fiber outfit Lumos. It had to scrub its website of DEI language, the Verge reported.
On the prospects of following his competitors, Stankey said, "I don't want to prognosticate on the future when I have no idea what's going to occur, but as I said, there's an awful lot of good things for this deal where it makes perfect sense, and I feel like we run the business in a really responsible manner."
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor and the host of the Opening Bid podcast. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wall Street Journal
39 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
GOP Senators' Competing Demands Risk Pulling Trump Megabill Apart
WASHINGTON—Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) is trying to release this week a revised version of President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' But as he races to pass the legislation ahead of Republicans' self-imposed July 4 deadline, he has got about as many problems as there are GOP senators, with lawmakers battling over the additional borrowing and spending cuts that will be used to finance tax relief, plus spending on the border and military.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Speaker Johnson teases follow-ups to the ‘one big, beautiful bill'
The 'one big, beautiful bill' may not be so singular, after all. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is teasing follow-up legislation to the megabill of President Trump's tax cut and spending priorities that Republicans can push though using the same special budget reconciliation process that requires only GOP votes. That tool can be used once per fiscal year, with the current fiscal year ending on Sept. 30. So after Republicans are done with the 'big, beautiful bill,' the GOP trifecta has, in theory, two more shots to muscle through party-line legislation before the next Congress comes into power after the midterms. Johnson floated plans for a second reconciliation bill while rebutting concerns from deficit hawks on the budget impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which includes an extension of tax cuts and boosts to border and defense funding, with costs offset in part by new requirements on low-income assistance programs like Medicaid and food aid. 'Everyone here wants to reduce spending,' Johnson said Friday morning on CNBC. 'But you have to do that in a sequence of events. We have a plan, OK? This is the first of a multistep process.' 'We're going to have another reconciliation bill that follows this one, possibly a third one before this Congress is up, because you can have a reconciliation bill for each budget year, each fiscal year. So that's ahead of us,' Johnson continued, also pointing to separate plans to claw back money based on recommendations from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 'We're also doing rescissions packages. We got the first one delivered this week from the White House, and that will codify many of the DOGE cuts.' The promise of another reconciliation bill is somewhat surprising given the crux of the debate that dominated the early weeks of the year: Should Republicans divide up their agenda into two bills, passing the first quickly to give Trump an early win on boosting funding for border enforcement and deportations? Or would putting all of Trump's priorities into one bill — which would contain both bitter pills and sweeteners for different factions of the razor-thin majority — be a better political strategy? Trump eventually said he preferred 'one big, beautiful bill,' a moniker that became the legislation's official title in the House last month. It's not clear what would be in a second piece of legislation. Multiple House Republicans who spoke with The Hill were unaware of plans for more reconciliation bills and were not sure what could be included in them. 'I think we need to see what's left on the table after the first one,' Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) said. And to muster through multiple reconciliation bills is a delicate prospect. If members know more reconciliation bills are coming, that complicates the argument that everything in the current package — even policies some factions dislike that others love — need to stay in one megabill. The Speaker declined to elaborate on what might be in such a package when asked in a press conference last week. 'I'm not going to tell you that,' Johnson said. 'Let's get the first one done.' 'Look, I say this is the beginning of a process, and what you're going to see is a continuing of us identifying waste, fraud, abuse in government, which is our pledge of common sense, restoring common sense and fiscal sanity. So we have lots of ideas of things that might be in that package.' Republicans had started planning for the current legislative behemoth months before the 2024 election so they would be prepared to quickly execute on their policy wish list if they won the majority. 'This isn't something we just drew up overnight. So, we'll go through that same laborious process,' Johnson said. But some members have ideas of what else they'd like to see. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said that he'd hope a second bill would do more to tackle rolling back green energy tax credits and make further spending cuts. Ultimately, though, it will be Trump's call, Norman said: 'I know when the president gets involved, it adds a lot of value.' And Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) speculated that passing the 'big, beautiful bill' would inspire members to keep going with another bill. 'People like the feeling of winning,' Pfluger said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Top Republican Flames Musk for Pushing GOP ‘Off the Cliff'
Nebraska GOP Rep. Don Bacon blamed billionaire Elon Musk for bankrolling the Republican party to a point of no return amid the former 'First Buddy's' very public spat with President Donald Trump. Bacon—who has publicly opposed Trump's handling of the Russia-Ukraine war, tariffs, Signalgate, and cuts to the United States Agency for International Development—told the New York Times he refuses to follow his party 'off the cliff' and into oblivion. Bacon pointed the finger at Musk for using his money to muscle his way into politics, saying the Tesla CEO used his financial hold over Republicans to tank a bipartisan spending bill that would have averted a government shutdown in December. 'I sort of blame him for that disaster,' Bacon, 61, said. Bacon was the sole House Republican to vote 'no' on renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. However, he did vote 'yes' to shuffle Trump's 'big beautiful bill' to its next phase. Upon voting, Bacon announced that the bill, though 'not perfect,' 'delivers for Nebraskans.' 'I don't like voting 'no,'' Bacon said. 'I like fixing things.' He added that he does what Trump 'has done' at the Southern Border. 'I have no problem with that,' he said. With Musk on the outs with Trump, Bacon said it's an opportunity to 'fight for the soul of our party,' 'I don't want to be the guy who follows the flute player off the cliff. I think that's what's going on right now,' Bacon said, comparing his numerous breaks from party lines to Winston Churchill condemning Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. Bacon added, 'Winston Churchill, who is one of my heroes, he was very unpopular 1932 through '40 because he was anti-Nazi. But in 1940, they go, 'Who was the only guy that knew what was going on?'' Shooting down any talk of campaigning to take the top job for himself as president, Bacon instead put the buzz out that he'd like to go into intelligence. 'If I had a perfect lane, someday I'd love to work in an administration as director of intelligence or secretary of Defense or Air Force,' he said. He added, 'I'd rather go down in history as being on the right side of this stuff.' The Daily Beast has reached out to Elon Musk for comment on Bacon's remarks.
