The breakup of AT$T came in 1984. The heads of the seven Baby Bells, who formerly were considered to be so-called group executives of AT$T and who were paid nowhere near what an independent-company CEO earned, all of a sudden became independent CEOs themselves. At least one of those CEOs, Ed Whitacre, decided he should be paid super-competively. The culmination of that thinking can be seen in his $63.8 Million pay package for 2001. Download complete story in PDF format.
