AT&T (T) CEO John Stankey isn’t showing his hand yet on whether he plans to dial back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to gain approval for a big new fiber deal from the Trump administration.
“We don’t have to roll back anything,” Stankey told Yahoo Finance (video above). “Our policies and our approach at AT&T have always been that we progress people on merit. That any employee that comes to work here should have an opportunity to grow their career, work on building their skills, have an opportunity to succeed and earn a living.”
“And our goal is to make sure that every employee that walks through the door of AT&T feels like they belong here and it’s a good place for them to work,” Stankey added. “And I’m pretty confident that anybody who examines our practices and how we run the business is going to come to that same conclusion.”
AT&T said late Wednesday it would acquire all of Lumen Technologies’ (LUMN) fiber business for $5.75 billion, above the already pricey $5.5 billion that deal watchers estimated a few weeks ago. The transaction is aimed at igniting a fire under AT&T’s lucrative fiber business, in part by providing bundled packages to consumers of mobile and broadband services at higher prices.
Lumen Technologies stock rose 2%, while AT&T fell slightly as investors digested the transaction.
Stankey said the deal is tailor-made for what the Trump administration wants to see: the creation of US jobs.
“We’re investing in great infrastructure that makes the US economy more competitive. We’re going into footprints and markets where the previous owner didn’t have the wherewithal and capability to do that,” he explained.
Lumen has about 1 million fiber customers spanning metro markets such as Denver, Las Vegas, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. The business is on track to generate $750 million in revenue this year.
“We think this appears to be a positive strategic move for AT&T; it provides incremental footprint to build fiber and drive a converged bundle offering where these assets appear to be under-penetrated,” KeyBanc Capital Markets telecom analyst Brandon Nispel said in a note.
AT&T sees the deal being immaterial to sales and earnings 12 to 24 months after closing but accretive in the long term. The company said the deal will help it reach 60 million households with fiber by 2030.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026 — with the emphasis on expected.
Telecom players have recently been expanding fiber businesses through acquisitions to challenge traditional cable operator Comcast. But to pass the deals by the Trump administration and new FCC Chair Brendan Carr, the companies have had to claw back DEI initiatives per the administration’s crackdown.
Verizon (VZ) closed its $20 billion acquisition of fiber play Frontier last week. To gain approval, however, the company said it would no longer have any HR roles or teams focused on DEI and will remove references to the term from employee training materials.
Similar concessions were made by T-Mobile (TMUS) so that it could move forward with a joint venture with fiber outfit Lumos. It had to scrub its website of DEI language, the Verge reported.
On the prospects of following his competitors, Stankey said, “I don’t want to prognosticate on the future when I have no idea what’s going to occur, but as I said, there’s an awful lot of good things for this deal where it makes perfect sense, and I feel like we run the business in a really responsible manner.”
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor and the host of the Opening Bid podcast. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
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