Xandr President to Leave Unit as Its Bond With WarnerMedia Tightens
September 20 2019 - 5:41PM
Dow Jones News
By Benjamin Mullin and Sahil Patel
The president of AT&T Inc.'s Xandr is leaving the
advertising and analytics unit as it begins to operate more closely
with WarnerMedia, according to people familiar with the matter.
Rick Welday, the former chief marketing officer of AT&T's
consumer business, has been president of Xandr since 2018. As a
lieutenant to Xandr Chief Executive Brian Lesser, Mr. Welday
oversees media sales and operations for the advertising and
analytics unit. He is expected to take a new role either at
AT&T or WarnerMedia, the people said.
Current and former executives at WarnerMedia and Xandr have long
expected that the two units would eventually combine, according to
the people. Some WarnerMedia ad sales executives have become
frustrated that Xandr hasn't delivered more revenue, some of the
people said.
WarnerMedia's ad sales team and Xandr are discussing strategies
to determine how they can collaborate more effectively, according
to a person familiar with the matter.
Mr. Lesser until recently reported to AT&T Chief Executive
Randall Stephenson, but began reporting to John Stankey, the chief
executive of WarnerMedia, after Mr. Stankey was named to the
additional post of chief operating officer at AT&T earlier this
month.
Mr. Welday is a high-profile executive at Xandr, which was
launched in 2018 as a stand-alone unit of AT&T encompassing
much of the wireless giant's ads business. The company aspires to
build a significant business selling highly targeted television
advertising, a goal that has historically been elusive for the TV
industry.
Mr. Welday's departure from Xandr comes as AT&T is facing
pressure from hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. to streamline and
consolidate its operations. In its letter, Elliott called on
AT&T to centralize its spending and tighten its governance.
--Suzanne Vranica contributed to the article.
Write to Benjamin Mullin at Benjamin.Mullin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 20, 2019 17:26 ET (21:26 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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