F. Duane Ackerman
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F. Duane Ackerman was the last chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Atlanta-based BellSouth Corporation.
A native of Plant City, FL, Mr. Ackerman holds a B.S. in physics and an M.S. from Rollins College, and earned his MBA from the Sloan Fellows program of the MIT Sloan School of Management. Latest estimates put his total annual compensation at approximately $11.3 million.
Under Ackerman's stewardship, BellSouth continued to produce relatively consistent financial results. However, the company also continued to lose landline customers, was slow to develop fully the DSL market potential in its markets, and had very little in the product/service pipeline to drive new growth. The company was dependent upon its Cingular joint venture for a disproportionate percentage of its net income.
Ackerman was criticized by some camps for having missed several opportunities to acquire or merge with other telecommunications providers. These missed opportunities left BellSouth positioned as a regional telecom island, a perceived disadvantage relative to larger national players such as Verizon or AT&T (formed by the recent merger of SBC and AT&T).
The SBC-AT&T merger created a uniquely complex situation for Ackerman with regards to Cingular Wireless, a joint venture between BellSouth and SBC. After the SBC/AT&T merger, the new AT&T began competing with BellSouth for lucrative business landline customers in BellSouth's own backyard, disturbing the historical territorial lines between the former Regional Bell Operating Companies or RBOCs (SBC and BellSouth). Indeed, this issue, as well as the desire for AT&T to entirely control the highly-profitable Cingular venture, lead AT&T to purchase BellSouth outright.
