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DEL.ICIO.USApparently, AT&T’s heart deep in Texas
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Once again, Atlanta has missed out on becoming AT&T’s headquarters town.
Last week, the telecommunications giant announced that it was moving its corporate headquarters from San Antonio to one of Texas’ top business addresses —- Dallas.
Was Atlanta ever in the running?
AT&T spokesman Walt Sharp sent me an e-mail saying the company had looked at “several other cities that provided us with access to a world-class airport and to large communities of technology partners, suppliers and human resources needed for future growth.”
But he did not say whether Atlanta, a city that seems to fit that profile, was seriously considered before the decision was made to move to Dallas.
“To our knowledge, there was no corporate relocation consultant retained,” said Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, adding that the chamber wasn’t contacted.
But Williams is not surprised the telecom company chose Dallas.
“The senior leaders and decision-makers at AT&T really have a strong emotional tie to Texas,” Williams said. “As far as I’m concerned, the decision to stay in Texas was made two years ago.”
When AT&T announced a deal to acquire Atlanta-based BellSouth in March 2006, Gov. Sonny Perdue and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin reached out to then-CEO Ed Whitacre about possibly basing the company’s operations out of Georgia.
Whitacre said Perdue called him and invited him to come to the mansion to talk about the headquarters (usually it’s the other way around). Whitacre came to Georgia to meet with the governor, but he let leaders know that the company would stay in San Antonio.
But AT&T did commit to keeping its wireless division (formerly Cingular Wireless) in Atlanta for at least five years. AT&T Mobility now is headed by Ralph de la Vega, a loyal Atlantan who returned here from San Antonio last fall.
“If I had to pick a division of AT&T to be based in Atlanta, it would be AT&T Mobility,” Williams said. “There’s nothing any more high-growth than wireless. And Ralph de la Vega has assured me that they are not going anywhere.”
New president for Atlanta Rotary
The Atlanta Rotary Club on Monday had a changing of the guard —- from hotelier Dick Stormont to Alec Fraser, president of Turner Properties.
Stormont thanked the Rotarians for all their philanthropic efforts worldwide, from polio eradication in India to clean water efforts in Africa.
Fraser said his theme for the club in the coming year will be “Time Well Spent.” He plans to spend his year improving the club’s offerings, including better technology. By the way, the first speaker under his leadership will be media pioneer Ted Turner, who will be there on Monday.
Following Fraser as Rotary’s president will be Bill Nordmark, who runs a consulting firm and has been a longtime leader with the club.
Developer named to Boy Scout post
Doug Mitchell, the founder of Pathway Communities, which helped guide the development of Peachtree City, is now taking on a major community role.
Mitchell has been named Southern regional president for the Boy Scouts of America, one of the highest volunteer jobs with the organization. Mitchell first became active with the Boy Scouts in 1956. He has been awarded the Distinguished Eagle Award by the National Eagle Scout Service.
In his new role as regional president, Mitchell will become one of 64 members of the organization’s executive board. The Southern region, the largest of the organization’s four regions, serves 1 million young people, with 270,794 volunteers stretching from Florida to Arkansas.
Power couple heads to hills
Two of Atlanta’s longtime international leaders are moving to the mountains. Carol Martel, who recently retired from Coca-Cola Co., used to head the international division for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. During the 1980s, she organized several high-level trade missions —- often led by then-Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young.
Her husband, Carlos Martel, headed the international trade division for the Georgia Department of Economic Development until a few years ago. He also worked on the now-stalled Hemisphere Inc. project for Atlanta to become the headquarters for the Americas.
Now they have decided to move full-time to their “little horse farm near Blue Ridge.”
Permalink | Comments (18) | Post your comment | Categories: Column
Comments
By Brian
July 3, 2008 8:12 AM | Link to this
Dallas wins again!!!! I think they can stamp their place as the corporate capital thats for sure. Atlanta better get its face out of the mud……
By Brian
July 3, 2008 8:14 AM | Link to this
Dallas wins again!!!! I think they can stamp their place as the corporate capitol of the south thats for sure. Atlanta better get its face out of the mud……
By Brian
July 3, 2008 8:14 AM | Link to this
Dallas wins again!!!! I think they can stamp their place as the corporate capitol of the south thats for sure. Atlanta better get its face out of the mud……
By zeke
July 3, 2008 8:36 AM | Link to this
SIMPLE!
ATLANTA HAS NOTHING TO OFFER, ONLY THE SAME OLD RACIAL CRAP WITH ELECTED MORONS WHO DO NOT KNOW THEIR REAR ENDS FROM A HOLE IN THE GROUND! ONLY ELECTED BECAUSE THEY ARE BLACK! NO REPUTABLE COMPANY WOULD PUT THEIR EMPLOYEES IN SUCH A SITUATION!!!!!!
By Interested Bystander
July 3, 2008 9:25 AM | Link to this
Sonny offered to let them come to his house. Hmmm … well, it’s clear he’s never held a SALES job.
What the heck was he thinking, or Sam Williams, for not aggressively courting this corporate titan, even after the decision? There should have been ongoing recruitment, even if there wasn’t a stated plan to move the company… so that our position would always be clear, that we wanted AT&T.
Maybe they’d have considered Atlanta, maybe not. But to wimp out and act like they should be happy that Sonny deigns to spend an hour with them? Give me a break!
And by the way, Dallas is pretty dysfunctional too, with issues of multiple schools districts, school achievement in tank, transportation woes, and unemployment … not to mention issues with illegal immigrants.
By Brian
July 3, 2008 9:39 AM | Link to this
Dallas’ mayor actually worked very hard on the new chairman and CEO (Whitacre has left) to pull them to Dallas. Whitacre was committed to San Antonio, the new guy, less so.
Them moving to Atlanta would have been a huge stretch anyway. We need to be focused on keeping AT&T Mobility and helping them grow that division. The way to get new business is to grow your existing customers….
By Jerry
July 3, 2008 9:43 AM | Link to this
When Ackerman decided years ago to get into bed with Whitacre’s plan to recreate AT&T, the die was cast. BellSouth would become cash rich by NOT buying other companies, by NOT investing in infrastructure that was contrary to the SBC plan and by degrading employee benefits. SBC would do the buying… Shame that Georgia government didn’t see the writting on the wall.
By Another Native
July 3, 2008 9:44 AM | Link to this
Having places in both metro ATL and metro DFW I dont agree with Interested Bystander.
“Dallas” is just as bad as “Atlanta” in the city limits.. a rotten apple core.
Its suburbs like Frisco and Plano have the room to build and the laws on the books for favorable development. Texas is also a right to work state.
By Steve
July 3, 2008 10:07 AM | Link to this
Would you move to Atlanta after hearing Shirley Franklin?
And then there was Bill Campbell.
Who is next? Maybe Al Franken or Louis Farrakhan?
By Suzanne
July 3, 2008 10:19 AM | Link to this
Perhaps we should all express our disapproval with our feet, cancel our ATT home phones and DSL and bundle service with Comcast.
By Kennedy
July 3, 2008 10:42 AM | Link to this
Georgia is also a right to work state.
By Teleco Man
July 3, 2008 12:14 PM | Link to this
North Dallas has a huge telecomm presence… all the major equipment players and startups are located there. ATL has basically no equipment vendors, save CIENA, MOVAZ , CISCO(SA)
By Get Real
July 3, 2008 12:24 PM | Link to this
Anyone think the traffic problems, that Sonny has failed to address, may have been taken into consideration at some point? Instead blame Shirley and the blacks, lol. Attracting a Fortune 500 company is bigger than a city Mayor.
By Interested Bystander
July 3, 2008 1:11 PM | Link to this
Another Native - I’ve lived in both places, too. The Atlanta suburbs match up reasonable well to Dallas’ burbs.
And yes, Dallas Telecom Corridor (Richardson to Plano, along North Central Expressway) is a good reason to locate there… but Atlanta has many of the same vendors here, and the AT&T company already had significant leaseholds in Class A real estate here.
But we didn’t try hard enough to attract them, especially knowing that we have to overcome the issues of transportation, water, air quality.
PS: Georgia is also Right-to-Work state.
By pamela
July 3, 2008 4:09 PM | Link to this
After having lived in Dallas AND Atlanta, Atlanta beats Dallas hands down as a place to live. It’s a flat, boring, treeless ugly ciy with absolutely NO character, charm or beauty whatsover. It’s basically concrete, highways and glass buildings. I left Dallas years ago to move to Los Angeles, and have never looked back. Heck, even LA was better! And that’s saying something..
By shadow7071
July 4, 2008 1:35 PM | Link to this
Georgia (Atlanta metro included) needs to do some serious soul searching about our approach to business and economic in our State.
We all love to tell Alabama jokes but the biggest joke is on Georgia. Alabama has the car factory jobs and Georgia don’t. Hey, even the new plant in West Point is on the State line, so many employees will live in Alabama.
We love to tell Texas jokes but Texas is one of the top five manufacturing States. (This means solid, skilled, well paying jobs)
Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Mississippi have more on the ball that we do when it comes to attracting and sustaining solid businesses that bring jobs and long term economic growth.
We used to refer to ourselves as the “Empire State of the South”. Today we hang on to shallow, flash-in-the-pan stuff that only benefits a few for a short period of time i.e., sports, entertainment, conventions (and we’re losing these), construction (and this has gone with the wind), and services (and these too are going away).
By TelcoGod
July 6, 2008 12:29 PM | Link to this
AT&T should be located here. This city could finally have had a core industry.
I can see it now, could have seen it then.
But the ‘people’ of Atlanta cannot. So instead we get a fake European Arch.
Sometimes I can’t stand this town.
By Rowdy
July 10, 2008 2:36 PM | Link to this
Being from Dallas I always find it interesting to see how others around the country respond to situations and challenges. When Boeing chose Chicago over Big D and Denver we congratulated the winners, nursed our hurt ego for a day or two and decided to try and learn from the experience. We didn’t flagellate ourselves to death for coming in second or make derogatory comments about our competitors. After that experience we knew we needed to make improvements in our arts district and recreational capacity, public transportation system, ask for more funding for our local universities, increase the density of housing in the downtown area and so on. I would say that we in Texas, like the rest of country, look at Atlanta with respect and admiration. I would hope you could feel the same way about us.