A warmer, fuzzier Whitacre?
Is hard-edged SBC CEO Ed Whitacre going through an extreme makeover?
A feature in this week's Fortune takes an interesting perspective on SBC Communications CEO Ed Whitacre's new persona as media mogul. Reporter Stephanie Mehta recalls the gloomy February day in New York when the typically hard-edged Whitacre started schmoozing with reporters and beaming for photographers before a company press conference.
"Longtime SBC watchers could scarcely believe their eyes: Was tough old Ed Whitacre actually working the room?" Mehta writes.
This could be the new public face for Whitacre, a no-nonsense Texan running what soon could be the largest phone company in the United States (assuming the company's $16 billion acquisition of AT&T goes through). Perhaps that's what Whitacre and other Bell executives will need as they step into the shark-infested waters of media and entertainment where relationships with the content community are bipolar. Just ask the cable guys.