AT&T's international chief is out as its $2 billion Mexico sale leaves consolidated results on October 21

The job that ran AT&T abroad is gone

Lori M. Lee ran AT&T's▼−0.30% — AT&T, down 0.30 percent today marketing and its international business as Global Marketing Officer and Senior Executive Vice President, International. On October 14 she said she would retire on December 31. The reason arrived two days later, in the company's own words.

An 8-K, the SEC filing a company uses to disclose major corporate changes↗, states that her role "will be eliminated" in connection with the Mexico sale "and other reorganizational efforts by the company" ¹. The job that carried AT&T's name abroad no longer exists. The filing names those other efforts and describes none of them.

Mexico goes at a 1.6 percent margin

The sale, struck October 13, hands Mexico's second-largest mobile operator and its 24.7 million subscribers to broadcaster Grupo Televisa and Fintech Holdings, billionaire David Martínez's investment firm, for $2 billion in cash, with closing expected in the first quarter of 2027 ². AT&T entered the market in 2014 by buying Iusacell ².

The unit's books explain the exit. Televisa's disclosure puts 2025 revenue at 85.4 billion pesos↗, about $4.65 billion, against operating income of $76.3 million ², a margin near 1.6 percent. Telefónica sold its Movistar business there in April for $450 million ². AT&T is the second foreign carrier to leave Mexico this year↗ ³.

The cash answers a rising debt line

Mexico now exits AT&T's reported results. The business will be classified as held for sale, an accounting label that pulls Mexico out of consolidated revenue and profit, in the 10-Q, the quarterly report, which lands October 21 ⁴. Consensus for that report↗ sits near $0.60 of adjusted earnings per share on $31.6 billion of revenue ⁴.

Where the money goes instead is fiber. On October 6, AT&T agreed to fold two assets into a wholesale fiber joint venture↗ with BlackRock's▲+0.99% — BlackRock, up 0.99 percent today Global Infrastructure Partners and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ⁵. One is Gigapower, its existing wholesale venture with GIP. The other is the consumer fiber network it bought from Lumen in February ⁵. AT&T holds 50 percent, and the venture starts with more than a million of its fiber subscribers, closing in the first half of 2027 ⁴.

Both deals answer to one leverage target

Both deals feed a balance-sheet target: net debt near 2.5 times adjusted EBITDA, its operating-earnings measure, within about three years ⁴. The pressure behind that target shows in the filings. Total debt climbed from $140.9 billion at the end of 2024 to $162.9 billion at the end of June ⁶.

Bulls hold $29, Bernstein holds $24

The Street's mean price target sits near $29 against a stock that closed at $23.50 on October 15 ⁴. Bernstein cut AT&T to Market Perform on October 12 with a $24 target, pointing at SpaceX's▼−2.17% — SpaceX, down 2.17 percent today spectrum push, while conceding that Starlink is no direct threat to AT&T's fiber ⁴.

Chief Executive John Stankey's defense is the strategy the sale funds. "We have articulated a strong belief that the AI future will run on converged networks with dense fiber assets," he said when the deal was announced ². The bulls' gauge is convergence, customers buying both home internet and wireless: 42.5 percent after the second quarter against a 50 percent goal ⁴.

October 21 answers first

CFO Pascal Desroches, retiring December 31, likely presents his last earnings report on October 21 ⁴. Jennifer Biry, a former McAfee finance chief and longtime AT&T and WarnerMedia executive, becomes CFO on January 1 ⁷. Watch the convergence share against 42.5 percent, and the first held-for-sale line. The 8-K names "other reorganizational efforts" and describes none of them. That phrase is the next story.