The Italian Job

Ed Whitacre's ambitions know no bounds. Nothing wrong with that. But his decision to make some grand statement by taking on the name AT&T may come back to bite him in the AS&S now that he wants to become a major shareholder in Telecom Italia.

Just mention the word American many places around the world today and you might have to duck. I don't wring my hands over that. We'll stop sending those people money some day and see how they like it. But perhaps on a corporate level, when C-level execs start throwing their billions around, all that animosity flies out the window. Still, having a company named American Telephone and Telegraph breeze into town like an obnoxious tourist trying to "date" one of the locals can't be sitting well with most Italians. They have that pride thing going on, you know.

Americans in this industry know how distasteful it was to have a French company snap up one of our hallmark technology corporations as if it was the failed uncle who drank himself and his little restaurant out of business and had to be rescued. The Italians can't see it much differently.

Heck, as late as 2005, the bishops in Rome were still warning against the horrors of mixed marriages. When I was a kid, it was Catholics and Protestants, today it’s Catholics and Muslims. But what is said to be good practice for the masses is seldom required of the corporate elites or any other elites. So the rules of mixed marriage don't likely apply to corporations on the same level. They only see green -- and not just the green stripe in the Italian flag.

Of course AT&T is saying TI management would stay. Of course it is saying they'll be partners. It said, when it was SBC, all the same things to Ameritech.

The Italian government opposes the idea of allowing the country's biggest phone company to be controlled by foreign investors. Prime Minister Romano Prodi has publicly stated that he wants the company to be controlled by Italians and has successfully blocked other such moves.

France Telecom and Telefonica also are bidding on the property. So it will be interesting to see if Prodi and his government really want the company to stay in Italian hands or just don't want it in American hands.

It kind of makes you understand how Dubai feels.

E-mail me at tmcelligott@telephonyonline.com