Join AT&T bosses to a fireside chat and hear how to get out of a $150 billion debt: you're invited!

Fireside chats can be great: simple, pure-heart conversations late at night with your closest ones; but how often do you talk about behemoth corporations acquiring other behemoth companies? How often do you talk about a $150 billion debt?!

Well, that's not your typical fireside chat for sure. But if you join one of AT&T's upcoming fireside chat sessions, you just might hear this – and so much more.

You may remember some ten years ago that T-Mobile's John Legere also made a fireside chat appearance, although he spoke in rhyme and had a pipe deserving to be in one of Tolkien's novels.

AT&T will webcast a series of fireside chats featuring CEO John Stankey and CFO Pascal Desroches at upcoming investor and analyst conferences. Desroches will speak at the Barclays Communication and Content Symposium on February 25 and the Deutsche Bank Media, Internet & Telecom Conference on March 11.

Stankey will participate in the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on March 4. These discussions, which will be available for live streaming (and replay, in case you can't make it for the live webcast) on AT&T's Investor Relations website, will provide insights into the company's financial and operational outlook.

Recently, CFO Pascal Desroches gave a lengthy interview where he shared some pretty interesting stories.

He became AT&T's CFO in 2021 during a critical moment for the company. Previously, AT&T had accumulated over $150 billion in debt after expanding beyond telecommunications with acquisitions like DirecTV and Time Warner.

Burdened by a $15 billion annual dividend obligation, the company needed a drastic shift. CEO John Stankey took bold steps to reverse course, selling off non-core assets, reducing the dividend, and refocusing on AT&T's core telecom business.

In just a few years, AT&T cut its debt by over $40 billion while continuing to invest heavily in infrastructure, including nearly $40 billion in spectrum acquisitions in 2021.

One of the most remarkable aspects of AT&T's turnaround was Stankey's willingness to undo a strategy he had previously helped create. Instead of continuing the push into media, he pivoted back to AT&T's roots in telecommunications: and it's not that easy for CEOs to just reverse course and ditch the company strategies.