Ivan
G. Seidenberg , Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer of
Verizon. Television International
Magazine's "Person of the Month"
-- March - 2010.
•••
Ivan G. Seidenberg, who started
at the bottom of the
telecommunications industry and
worked his way to the top,
transformed Verizon into a leader
in both the traditional phone
market and into the wireless
industry. The company's history
can be traced back to the breakup
of AT&T in the mid-1980s,
when the Baby Bells were born.
Originally there were seven Baby
Bells, but they ultimately merged
into four giants, including
Verizon (formed in 2000 when Bell
Atlantic merged with GTE), SBC,
BellSouth Corporation, and Qwest
Communications International.
These companies controlled the
local phone service market and
were even awarded free radio •
Both the FCC and
NBS1908, scored big in Airwave
the Wireless Telephone™
specrum auction -- March 21,
2008, thet just-concluded. The
auction covers licenses to
transmit and receive electronic
signals of different frequencies
in various regions.
The nation's two largest wireless
companies emerged as the biggest
winners in a record-setting
auction of public airwaves,
increasing the odds that they
will continue to dominate that
market for years to come.-
•
CONTINUED
Continued02
/ 4.
More TimeLine / TVI Magazine is
not responsible for the content of
external InterNet sites •
2003
- (BusinessWeek, August 4,
2003). In the spring of 2002 Seidenberg's
wait was over, and he became the sole CEO
of Verizon. But he was never in a position
to rest on his laurels. The rapidly
consolidating telecom business faced a new
threat: cable. David N. Watson, executive
vice president for marketing at Comcast,
the nation's cable leader at the time,
said, "Phone companies would have to make
hefty investments to catch up. And we
won't be standing still" (BusinessWeek,
August 4, 2003). •
2003
- (BusinessWeek, August 4,
2003). As Verizon continued to lose
traditional customers, Seiden-berg
remained focused on transforming the
industry. In 2003 Verizon became the first
Baby Bell to offer the now ubiquitous
flat-rate plans that offered unlimited
long-distance and local calls. Not long
after, every other Baby Bell introduced
its own plan. Said Seidenberg, "When
you're the market leader, part of your
responsibility is to reinvent the
market" •
2003
- (BusinessWeek, August 4,
2003). Seidenberg's biggest move by far
was his aggressive push into the broadband
market. According to him, the age-old
telecom model was completely obsolete. The
future relied on what he called a
"broadband industry" that offered
consumers video and voice features with
the potential of transforming the way
various demographics accomplished everyday
tasks. For example, high school students
could use the technology to download a
missed algebra class while doctors could
use state-of-the-art videoconferencing to
communicate with patients in rural areas.
Said Seidenberg, "The cable industry
focuses on entertainment and games. The
broadband industry will focus on
education, health care, financial
services, and essential government
services. I think over the next five to 10
years, you will see five, six, seven
[segments of the economy]
reordering the way they think about
providing services" (BusinessWeek, August
4, 2003). •
2004 -
On January 1, 2004 Ivan G.
Seidenberg, became Verizon's Chairman of
the Board having served as Verizon's sole
CEO since April 1, 2002 after serving as
co-CEO. •
2004
- Verizon remained the biggest
of all the Baby Bells. In 2004 it led the
local market&emdash;dominating the
Northeast with 35 million local phone
customers, more than any other
telecom&emdash;and was the number two
long-distance provider, behind AT&T.
Verizon boasted 2003 sales of $68 billion
and a market capitalization of nearly $100
billion. •
2004
- Verizon Wireless, the
company's joint venture with Vodafone, was
the number one U.S. wireless provider. As
for the future, Seiden-berg bet on
broadband. Hoping to thwart attacks from
cable companies, Seidenberg fought back on
broadband, investing heavily on the belief
that customers would pay to bring the
technology into their households. •
2004
- (Wall Street Journal, May 28,
2004). At Verizon each of the wholesale
orders traditionally took about an hour.
The orders arrived by fax, and then
employees manually entered the details
into the company's systems. Next they
would send the orders back so that
customers could check them for accuracy.
That route, which was repeated thousands
of times a year, was eliminated. In its
place was a more direct process in which
Verizon allowed its customers to access
its computer directly and place the orders
themselves. Said Tom Maguire, who oversaw
Verizon's wholesale operations, "It's
cheaper to get a machine. Machines don't
call in sick and are consistent in
quality" (Wall Street Journal, May 28,
2004). As a result of the change, Verizon
was processing more than 92 percent of its
orders automatically through proprietary
software it had developed. The system was
so easy to use that Verizon was able to
train several temporary workers, whom they
hired because of a threatened strike, to
use it in a week and a half. Training the
old way took more than a year. •
2004
- (Fortune, May 31, 2004). As
for the Bell Atlantic merger with GTE,
Seidenberg became co-CEO with Charles R.
Lee of GTE. In both cases, an agreement
was struck that would guarantee Seidenberg
the top position within a specified period
of time after the deals were finished.
Commenting upon his decision, Seidenberg
said, "Sharing responsibility for a
three-, four-, or five-year period in the
history of the world was not a big deal"
(Fortune, May 31, 2004). •
2004
- (Fortune, May 31, 2004). As
for the Bell Atlantic merger with GTE,
Seidenberg became co-CEO with Charles R.
Lee of GTE. In both cases, an agreement
was struck that would guarantee Seidenberg
the top position within a specified period
of time after the deals were finished.
Commenting upon his decision, Seidenberg
said, "Sharing responsibility for a
three-, four-, or five-year period in the
history of the world was not a big deal"
(Fortune, May 31, 2004). •
2004
- In 2004 Verizon Wireless was
the nation's number one wireless provider
with more than 26 million mobile phone
customers nationwide. Verizon's
investments in the technology continued in
2003 as the company outfitted the
Manhattan section of New York City with
more than one thousand wireless fidelity
hotspots.
•••
These allowed broadband subscribers
near a Verizon telephone booth to access
the Internet wirelessly with their
laptops. Another project on the horizon
was 3G, which would allow customers to
make speedy online connections using their
mobile phones. By 2004 wireless accounted
for 33 percent of Verizon's total
revenues, and Seidenberg planned to invest
an additional $5 billion into the
technology.
ual survival and help us find a new model
that will help us preserve jobs and
compete in the marketplace" •
2004
- (Fortune, May 31, 2004). THE
FUTURE OF
WiFi187.•In
2004 Seidenberg backed up his vision of
the future by announcing a
multibillion-dollar initiative to bring
high-speed fiber lines into millions of
customers' homes. Those lines could one
day carry television programs, allowing
Verizon to compete with cable companies.
At the January 2004 Consumer Electronics
Show, Seidenberg declared that his
investment would be the start of the
"all-broadband, all-the-time lifestyle"
(Fortune, May 31, 2004). •
2004
- (Fortune, May 31, 2004).
. More. In
the first stage of his initiative,
Seidenberg planned to bring fiber to one
million homes by the end of 2004, an
ambitious project that would cost $1
billion -- more than 8 percent of the
company's total capital expenditure budget
for that year. He hoped to have another
two million homes wired by 2005. Some
analysts calculated that outfitting the
homes of Verizon's other 32 million
customers with fiber would cost $40
billion. Some called Seidenberg's plan
nothing more than a bluff. Said Susan
Kalla, a telecom analyst at Friedman
Billings Ramsey, "He's not going to do it.
The numbers, they just don't make sense"
(Fortune, May 31, 2004). •
2004
- (Fortune, May 31,
2004). A
POKER PLAYER? Seidenberg contended that he
was planning to move slowly at first, to
test his strategy. As for investors'
concerns, he was not really worried: "Most
investors only understand that which has
already been done. They never really like
things that haven't been done before.
•••
That's why Christopher Columbus had
so much trouble getting financing"
(Fortune, May 31, 2004). Verizon also made
a push into the corporate market, building
a national network that could accommodate
the vast numbers of bits and bytes on
which corporations rely to communicate
with their disparate offices. The company
expected the new services to generate $250
million per year; it hoped to increase
that figure to $1 billion by 2007. •
2004
- (Fortune, May 31,
2004). More.
One immediate focus was the company's
wholesale business, in which it leased its
lines at reduced rates to other companies
that wanted to offer local phone service.
Baby Bells were once accused of stalling
this process -- after all, they would
rather sell the service themselves -- but
in a new regulatory arena, they faced
fines if they did not meet requirements
for fair and speedy access.
•••Seidenberg's
leadership style was a study in paradoxes.
He was known for his soothing, persuasive
voice that came in handy during those
times when he had to sell employees and
investors on his seemingly quixotic
strategies. Yet he could also be
incredibly abrupt. A mutual fund investor,
who remained anonymous, recalled
Seidenberg's answer to the question from
another investor about whether the company
would acquire the long-distance company
Sprint:
•••
"Real condescendingly, he responded
that he didn't know why he even bothered
to answer these types of questions. This
was an investor who owned something like
six million shares in the company. I
always wondered what he did with them the
following Monday" (Fortune, May 31,
2004). •
2005
- April 10, 2005 / Verizon
Communications Inc. said Saturday it was
paying $1.1 billion to acquire a 13.4%
stake in MCI Inc. directly from its
largest single stockholder.
•••The
transaction removes a major wild card in
Verizon's bid to fend off a higher-priced
offer to acquire MCI by Qwest
Communications International Inc. of
Denver. CLICK
FOR MORE STORY
•••The
New York telephone company is paying
$25.72 per share in cash to Mexican
billionaire Carlos Slim Helu, who had
previously expressed dissatisfaction with
offers from Verizon and Qwest. The deal
values Slim's 43.4 million shares at an
11% premium to the $23.10 per share
Verizon agreed to pay MCI's other
shareholders two weeks ago in a sweetened
$7.5-billion deal. •
2006 -
In 2006 Mr. Seidenberg donated
$15 million dollars to Pace University.
Pace's School of Computer Science and
Information Systems was officially renamed
the Ivan G. Seidenberg School of Computer
Science and Information Systems. •
2005
- Verizon CEO sounds off on
Wi-Fi, customer gripes / Seidenberg also
explains phone company's reasons for
wanting to buy MCI / Todd Wallack,
Chronicle Staff Writer / Saturday, April
16, 2005. SEE
MORE BELOW •
2007
- June 8, 2007 - The White
House announced today that President Bush
intends to appoint three communications
executives to the President's National
Security Telecommunications Advisory
Committee (NSTAC).
•••According
to the July 11 White House release, the
President plans to appoint Ivan G.
Seidenberg, Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of Verizon; Mike S. Zafirovski,
President and Chief Executive Officer of
Nortel; and Kyle E. McSlarrow, President
and Chief Executive Officer of the
National Cable and Telecommunications
Association (NCTA) to the advisory
committee.
•••Composed
of up to 30 industry chief executives
representing the major communications,
information technology, finance, and
aerospace companies, NSTAC provides
industry-based advice and expertise to the
President on issues and problems related
to implementing national security and
emergency preparedness (NS/EP)
communications policy. For 25 years, NSTAC
has addressed a wide range of policy and
technical issues regarding communications,
information systems, information
assurance, critical infrastructure
protection, and other NS/EP communications
concerns. •
2007
- Ivan Seidenberg, the chief executive
of Verizon Communications Inc., received
$20.3 million in compensation in 2007, up
slightly from $20.2 million the year
before, according to a regulatory filing
Monday. •
2007
- Seidenberg's $20.3 million
compensation in 2007 included perks worth
$825,312, including $149,023 in personal
use of a company aircraft, and $431,395 in
contributions to a deferred-savings
plan.
•••http://www.verizon.com •
2006
- Seidenberg's bonus was $4.2 million,
down $52,500 from 2006. His stock award
was virtually the same as in 2006, about
$13.1 million, and his salary remained
$2.1 million. •
2007
- The New York-based
telecommunications company's stock rose
17.3 percent in 2007, as Wall Street
started to overcome its skepticism about
the company's expensive plan to make
fiber-optic connections available to most
customers in its local-phone service area.
However, the stock has lost all those
gains and more in 2008, closing at $34.61
Monday, about 7 percent below the 2006
year-end close.
•••Verizon's
board noted that the company met or
exceeded the targets on which it bases
executive compensation, including earnings
per share for the year. •
2008
- Verizon is one of the few major
companies that have decided to give
shareholders a voice on executive
compensation. At the annual meeting next
year, shareholders will vote on whether
the 2008 compensation package is
reasonable. The vote will be not binding,
but a "no" result could be embarrassing to
the company.
•••Shareholders
last year voted by a slim margin to accept
a nonbinding proposal put forward by The
Association of BellTel Retirees to
institute such a vote.
•••The
Associated Press calculations of total pay
include executives' salary, bonus,
incentives, perks, above-market returns on
deferred compensation and the estimated
value of stock options and awards granted
during the year.
•••The
calculations don't include changes in the
present value of pension benefits, and
they sometimes differ from the totals
companies list in the summary compensation
table of proxy statements filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. •
2008
-
As chairman and chief executive
officer of Verizon Communications Inc.,
formerly Bell Atlantic and previously
NYNEX, Seidenberg steered those companies
through two of the largest
telecommunications mergers in history:
Recap tviNews•
1997 -
the merger of Bell Atlantic and
NYNEX in 1997;
•
1999 -
Ivan led efforts in September
1999 to form Verizon Wireless, the
nation's largest (at the time) wireless
communications business composed of the
wireless assets of Bell Atlantic, GTE and
Vodafone Airtouch.
•
2000 -
the Bell Atlantic merger with
GTE in 2000;
•
20050-06
- In 2005, Mr. Seidenberg's
total compensation was $19.4m and in 2006
it was estimated at $23.6m.
•••Seidenberg
began his career in telecommunications as
a lineman's assistant straight from high
school, and is one of the few Fortune 500
CEOs to have worked his way from the very
bottom to the very top. He served a tour
of duty in the Vietnam War as a tail
gunner. He studied part-time and is a
graduate of Lehman College of the City
University of New York (1972), earning a
B.A. in mathematics, and received his MBA
in Marketing from Pace University
(1981). •
2008
- FCC and NBS1908, score in
Airwave Auction -- March 21, 2008
/ The
just-concluded auction covers licenses to
transmit and receive electronic signals of
different frequencies in various
regions.
The nation's two largest wireless
companies emerged as the biggest winners
in a record-setting auction of public
airwaves, increasing the odds that they
will continue to dominate that market for
years to come. •
2008
- Verizon Wireless agreed to
pay more than $9 billion of the $19
billion raised for government coffers and
got the largest chunks of the spectrum,
which it is expected to use for such
high-volume transmissions as video and
corporate data.
• •
AT&T Inc., the only carrier
larger than Verizon, will pay more than $6
billion for new slices of the spectrum,
according to figures released Thursday by
the Federal Communications Commission. It
won licenses to use smaller parts of the
airwaves, but AT&T noted that it
recently bought $2.5 billion worth of
more-valuable spectrum in a private
sale. •
2008
- AT&T and Verizon co-owner
Verizon Communications Inc. already offer
DSL service.
No. 3 carrier Sprint Nextel Corp.,
which sat out the process, has been beset
by technological challenges, subscriber
defections and management turnover. •
2008
- A surprise winner for another
block of the spectrum was satellite
television company EchoStar Communications
Corp. It spent more than $700 million for
spectrum that reaches across almost the
entire U.S. but can transmit signals in
only one direction rather than
two. One
chunk of spectrum failed to attract the
minimum bid established by officials. That
slice of the airwaves was to be shared by
private winners and public emergency
responders. •
2009
- RF spectrums used by
television stations but due to be returned
to the government in 2009 as the stations
complete their switch to digital signals
-- would provide a third high-speed data
pipe to homes, rivaling DSL and cable. •
2009
- More wireless spectrum are
slated to change hands in February, about
the same time Analog becmes digital, but
it will take years more before the new
"bunny box" will be capabilities are fully
exploited,
-
EDITORS
NOTE
/ Ivan speaks out. •••The
head of the country's largest phone
company ridiculed San Francisco's interest
in building a municipal Wi-Fi network that
is designed to offer cheap or free
Internet service throughout the city.
President Names Three Communications
Executives to NSTAC
•••Arlington,
VA. June 8, 2007 - The White House
announced today that President Bush
intends to appoint three communications
executives to the President's National
Security Telecommunications Advisory
Committee (NSTAC).
•••According
to the July 11 White House release, the
President plans to appoint Ivan G.
Seidenberg, Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of Verizon; Mike S. Zafirovski,
President and Chief Executive Officer of
Nortel; and Kyle E. McSlarrow, President
and Chief Executive Officer of the
National Cable and Telecommunications
Association (NCTA) to the advisory
committee.
•••Composed
of up to 30 industry chief executives
representing the major communications,
information technology, finance, and
aerospace companies, NSTAC provides
industry-based advice and expertise to the
President on issues and problems related
to implementing national security and
emergency preparedness (NS/EP)
communications policy. For 25 years, NSTAC
has addressed a wide range of policy and
technical issues regarding communications,
information systems, information
assurance, critical infrastructure
protection, and other NS/EP communications
concerns.
•••Ivan
G. Seidenberg, Chairman and CEO
Verizon
•••Mr.
Seidenberg became Verizon's Chairman of
the Board on January 1, 2004 and has
served as Verizon's sole CEO since April
1, 2002 after serving as co-CEO when
Verizon was formed in 2000. As chief
executive of Bell Atlantic, and previously
of NYNEX, Mr. Seidenberg was instrumental
in reshaping the communications industry
through two of the largest mergers in its
history &endash; the merger of Bell
Atlantic and NYNEX in 1997, and the Bell
Atlantic merger with GTE in 2000. He also
led efforts to form Verizon Wireless.
•••Mr.
Seidenberg began his communications career
more than 39 years ago as a cable
splicer's assistant. His career
encompasses numerous operations and
engineering assignments, including various
leadership positions at AT&T and
NYNEX.
5.
NBS100 Review WiFi / Land-lines NBS100
TeleComunication Study - Regulatory
Frequency Seizure
•
Andrew Carnegie (November
25, 1835 -- August 11, 1919) was a
Scottish-born American businessman, a
major philanthropist, and the founder of
the Carnegie Steel Company which later
became U.S. Steel. He is known for having
built one of the most powerful and
influential corporations in United States
history, and, later in his life, giving
away most of his riches to fund the
establishment of many libraries, schools,
and universities in Scotland, America and
worldwide. CLICK
FOR MORE WALL STREET - 1902
STORY
We
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PEOPLE SECTION TimeLine - Ivan Seidenberg
, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
Verizon. Television International
Magazine's "Person of the Month" -- March
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