End of the Line

by Leslie Cauley

For more than a century, the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. was a towering fixture in the American business landscape. At the forefront of the global communications revolution, AT&T led the way in the development of the telephone, wireless communication, and the Internet. But at the end of the twentieth century, with one man floundering at the helm, the corporate giant collapsed. It was the end of an era.
Veteran telecom journalist Leslie Cauley pursued the story for over a decade and witnessed the entire debacle. At The Wall Street Journal and at USA Today, she has earned a reputation for aggressive investigation of the numerous industry shake-ups -- none more dramatic than AT&T's headlong plunge as it misguidedly attempted to become a broadband leader. Cauley gained access to current and former AT&T executives, boardmembers, and other insiders. Filled with new and controversial material and peopled by a cast of characters worthy of a Shakespearean drama, this is the first book to chronicle this riveting tale.
Up through the late 1990s, AT&T -- tough, innovative, resourceful -- seemed infallible. For industry insiders and for the general public, it loomed as an emblem of American business prowess and, even more, of the American Dream fulfilled. End of the Line is an unprecedented account of the ruin of an icon and one of the shattering corporate events of our time.

Genres: Business, History, Nonfiction, Economics

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 2005

Reviews

[Joseph Viola · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book for anyone interested in the history of AT&T in the mid 90s and their slow, then suddenly rapid decline. Thankfully the brand was saved when SBC bought AT&T in 2005, which is the AT&T most people are familiar with nowadays.

[Alberto · Rating 2 out of 5]

I managed to finish this book because the story is captivating, but the book definitely is not. The analysis is superficial, and Cayley clearly runs out of new things to say so she ends up repeating the same things over and over and over again. As one example, she mentions AT&T strong balance sheet (pre-Armstrong) a half dozen times, and even gets it wrong - on one page, she says AT&T long-term debt was $126 billion; elsewhere she says $12 billion. Her description of the personalities involved is likewise superficial and repetitive. She mentions Armstrongs "Big Blue way of looking at things" at least a dozen times (I am not exaggerating). There's even a entire discussion (regarding negotiations with Time Warner Cable) that is given in its entirety twice (pp. 189 and 190).

Another serious complaint is that the language of the book is inappropriately informal for the subject matter, even downright vulgar in a couple of places. Her very poor writing style just adds to the book's generally sloppy impression. This impression is not aided by the careless errors that pepper the book (e.g., referring to Microsoft as a cable giant). Didn't anybody edit this thing before it hit the shelves?

Most annoying of all is the approach of following parallel lines to that fateful summer of 2000, then backing up to follow another line of thought. It seems to be an attempt to highten the drama, but it fails miserably. A chronological order would have made the story much more interesting as well as making it much easier for the reader to figure out what went wrong with AT&T and perhaps learn something from the book. But perhpas this is just as well as Cauley's research would not have been up to this task.

I bought this book expecting some new insights, but there was nothing in here one wouldn't already know from reading the Wall Street Journal as the collapse was happening. Cauley simply did not do any homework or dig beneath the surface in the least. Overall, a very weak effort. I give it a low C or high D mark.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent read on the history of a historic company and time in the country. Unreal to observe how many posers, who weren't actually competent in their disciplines rise to such high levels, be compensated as highly as they were, and not go to jail.

[Ray Pezzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who worked for AT&T during the Mike Armstrong "let's see how quickly we can destroy the company" era, I can personally attest that this is a very accurate account of what went on.

First, a note about the name: the AT&T I worked for was **THE** AT&T, what remained of the original Bell System after the US Department of Justice ordered the breakup of the telephone monopoly in the 1980's. AT&T kept long distance service in that breakup, with its local service being spun off into 7 different (and independent) "Regional Bell Operating Companies", one of which was Southwestern Bell, later named SBC Communications. When Armstrong finally destroyed AT&T, SBC swooped in and bought up AT&T for the most valuable thing it had left: the name. So when I tell people I worked for AT&T and they reply, "Oh, I know AT&T. I have an AT&T cell phone!", I can only grimace internally and think, "Not the same company, not the same company at all. That's Southwestern Bell."

It's hard to believe that Mike Armstrong's leadership of AT&T was so incredibly misguided, but it was. At a time when we were charging a significant premium for long distance service to our large business customers (millions of dollars a year), we were keeping that business for one principal reason: customer service. We certainly had plenty of competition from companies like MCI who were eager to sign contracts with our customers for 25 - 50% less than what we were charging, but we were keeping that business because our customers knew they didn't have to worry about AT&T. Whatever it was, from something as simple as adding a phone line to a new office to installing a T1 network, all the behind the scenes 'nuts and bolts' stuff of managing a telephone system was something our customers didn't have to worry about, we'd take care of it for them.

Ah, but the the brilliance of Mike Armstrong came through! He decided that it was a great idea to cut costs by ELIMINATING CUSTOMER SERVICE for our large business customers! Rather than 'waste' the time of our sales people by having them bogged down by fixing problems for companies who were only paying us millions of dollars a year, we created a self-service website (which didn't work) for these customers and basically told them, "Sorry, I can't be bothered anymore. Go to this website and fix it yourself."

Imagine you were the person responsible for managing your company's telephone service, with a variety of problems coming to your desk on a regular basis. For years you'd been paying AT&T a lot more than what MCI was offering because they took care of these problems for you - and now they won't. What rational human being would stay with AT&T?

Well, they didn't, obviously. I abandoned the ship at this point because it was clear that AT&T's days were numbered. And when SBC bought up the company name, that was just about the only thing of value it had left. Mike Armstrong, you idiot!

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating industry & a fascinating story, written by a passionate & well informed author.
I personally found the depiction of an industry I take for granted & the mechanics of deal making in corporate America enlightening.

[Harry Prillaman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good analysis of how uncertain the future can be for large corporations when the landscape changes.

[William Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be provided.

[Joel Massey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goes pretty deep into the downfall of some greedy bastards. Suggested reading for people who like non fiction/current events.