According to Om Malik, AT&T are addressing their overly-heavy VP ranks with some serious offloading, in a response to ongoing concerns about economic performance.  Apparently, VP-level executives are being offered severance packages to encourage them to jump ship from the carrier, with the alternative being that they are demoted to a lower position.  Meanwhile, there’s juggling at AT&T’s top level management too, with former VeriSign executive John Donavon employed as CTO in charge of network upgrades and research. 

Out of the other side of the revolving door goes Andrew Stern, formerly CEO and chairman of recently-acquired USi. 

AT&T recently invested heavily in the FCC’s 700MHz spectrum auction, spending $6.64bn on 227 licences from Block B.  Their Q4 2007 performance was surprisingly good, with profits up from $1.9bn in Q4 2006 to $3.1bn, and further growth predicted.