Congratulations to Ed Whitacre Jr. for building a great big telecommunications company from an assortment of smaller ones. Certainly in this case the sum was greater than the parts.

 

Ed is about to retire and he can consider this my retirement present.

 

While I have perhaps had a rant or two over the years about net neutrality comments made by Mr. Whitacre, there is not a single person who can deny this man has achieved greatness in the world of communications and technology.

 

Ed Whitacre Jr. put AT&T back together again and left it in great shape.

 

The Board of Directors has chosen Randall L. Stephenson, AT&T's chief operating officer, to succeed Whitacre as chairman and CEO.

 

Randall has tremendous shoes to fill and it may be very tough to keep AT&T’s massive momentum going without even more acquisitions. These could consist of content plays such as perhaps satellite radio, internet companies and even advertising networks. Yahoo! makes a good acquisition target for example. But really, who knows at this point?

 

It will be very interesting to see where this company which represents a new and old American icon will decide to take its expanding business. It will certainly be exciting to watch and discuss with my community of readers.