AT&T’s broadband shuffle: Somers out, Schleyer in

AT&T has gone to the former Continental Cablevision well to revamp the management team of its AT&T Broadband cable unit in naming William Schleyer to replace Dan Somers, who AT&T says is retiring.

As president-COO of Continental before and after that cable company was acquired by US West Media Group and became MediaOne, Schleyer worked under Amos Hostetter, an influential member of the AT&T board and former owner of Continental.

Schleyer will have several key members of his former Continental management team helping him out in what appears to be an effort to bring cable people to AT&T’s cable business. Ron Cooper is the new chief operating officer and David Fellows joins as chief technical officer. Cooper and Fellows both held similar positions at Continental/MediaOne.

The management moves come as AT&T continues to study bids, led by Comcast, for its cable unit. The moves obviously will impact those bids and AT&T reaction to other suitors seeking its cable operations, said industry observers.

“The hope here is that you create a stronger AT&T Broadband, whether that is to sell it off, or to spin it off or to keep it is tune in tomorrow, same time, same channel,” said Michael Goodman, an analyst with the Yankee Group. “I said this is one that isn’t going to happen here fast, and this is one [move] that’s going to slow it down even further.”

At the very base level, AT&T could strengthen its product and get a better price from Comcast or another bidder.

“If AT&T had gotten the price they wanted, [the broadband unit] would be gone already,” Goodman said. “But they can’t get what they feel it’s worth. The only way to get a better price is to improve it. It all starts at the top. The management team is the one that’s going to do it, and, clearly, Dan Somers hasn’t gotten it done.”