About four months after retiring as president of AT&T Broadband, Daniel
Somers has been named vice chairman of New York investment banker Blaylock &
Partners L.P.
Somers, who retired from AT&T in October, had been under fire ever since
taking over the Broadband unit in October 1999 from Leo J. Hindery, Jr.
Somers had been chief financial officer of AT&T Corp. for about two years
prior to assuming the Broadband job.
Somers' tenure at Broadband was beset by lower-than-expected growth and
declining cash-flow margins. He was replaced at the cable operation by former
Continental Cablevision Inc. executive William Schleyer.
In December, AT&T agreed to merge the Broadband unit with Comcast Corp.
after a five-month auction process, in a deal valued at $72 billion.
In his new position with Blaylock, Somers will work closely with chairman and
CEO Ronald Blaylock to expand the firm's investment banking activities,
particularly advising on mergers and acquisitions.
'Dan has extensive senior management experience in the telecom and cable
sectors, two of our areas of specialization,' Blaylock said in a prepared
statement. 'We expect him to play a major role in our firm's growth and
expansion.'Blaylock, one of the largest minority and woman-owned investment
bankers in the country, was co-manager last March of the initial public offering
of Agere Systems Inc., the former microelectronics division of Lucent
Technologies Inc.
'I have known Ron [Blaylock] for several years and I always admired his
commitment to build an investment banking firm that gets business because of its
expertise and talent and not because of its minority-owned status,' Somers said
in a statement. 'I have been involved in a number of significant financings, and
I regard Ron and his team as being among the best in the business. I am
confident that I can help them build on their impressive record.'
