 unapparent." He was, in fact, SO anticipated that the latest issue of Newsweek, which came out before the announcement was made, had declared, "No one was confirming the reports. But by the time you read this, C. Michael Armstrong of Tough Calls Hughes Electronics may well have been officially named the next head of AT&T."I There were equally predictable questions for Allen and Elisha, some insubstantial but dangerous nevertheless. When the AT&T board made the difficult decision to reverse course and tell John Walter that he was unlikely to become CEO of AT&T, it also decided to take complete control of the announcement. The board's attitude was "the less said the better," and to ensure that things were unsaid exactly as the board wanted them unsaid, it ap- pointed one of its own, Walter Elisha, as its spokesman. Walter Elisha Elisha, a short man with a ring of longish white hair around his bald pate, was one of Bob Allen's oldest friends. They had both attended Wabash College in Indiana, though at different times. They shared the same practical midwestern values. And they had both worked their way up to prominent business positions without the benefit of family connections, lengthy pedigrees, or personal trust funds. Allen had spent his entire career within the bosom of AT&T and its subsidiaries; after acquiring a Harvard MBA, Elisha had moved through a succes- sion of ever larger companies, winding up as chairman and CEO of Springs Industries, the textile and home furnishings manufacturer. When Allen had come to the conclusion that John Walter had to go, Walter Elisha was the first board member he called on, flying to Elisha's summer home in Nantucket. The two old friends had strug- gled with the implications-Allen knew it meant that his AT&T career was over, and Elisha didn't try to persuade him otherwise. But he also reinforced Allen's determination to get it over with. I was offended that the board apparently didn't trust me or my team to handle all aspects of the announcement, and I was dubious that Elisha