This was an interesting article until the last paragraph when it fell off a cliff. Who says "The Plan" isn't drawing much criticism?

Re: AT&T CEO Whitacre to retire.

Perhaps that person should take a look at the unprecedented number and nature of AT&T stockholder proposals related to executive compensation? Each of these stockholder initiatives relating to executive compensation gained more than 30% approval even in a process that is stacked against them.

Long term shareholders aren't exactly euphoric about the 53% return to shareholders is because they survived and are still trying to recover from the SBC/Ameritech stock "death spiral" when their stock dropped from a high of $58 to a low in the $18 range. TO be certain $39 is better than $18, but it's remains a far cry from the $50's in 2000.