ikes to be criticized, especially in front of one's family, friends, and colleagues. But when one of a business's leaders leaves, the rawest point of vulnerability is not in the outside world. It is within the company itself, among the employees left behind, many of whom had some level of allegiance to the faithful departed. Hindery had replaced virtually the entire TCI senior man- agement team when he joined the company; nearly all the executives there owed their jobs to him, and he had rewarded them all with fat retention bonuses and option grants when the AT&T merger was an- nounced. Similarly, the rank and file loved to read about their boss dashing from one deal to another. Armstrong tackled that issue head on in a note to the people of AT&T Broadband that tried to take some of the curse off the corporate euphemism "pursue other interests." It followed Hindery's own e- mail to the troops by minutes. "As you know, our news release said that Leo Hindery 'is leaving to pursue other interests,'" Armstrong wrote. That is literally true, although for all the hours and energy he has put into our business, it's hard to believe that Leo has any other interests. But he does. And a family that he has seen too little of over the last few years. So it's not hard to understand why he's getting off the merry-go-round. But in a real sense Leo leaves be- hind an important part of himself-his vision and the team he built to realize it. AT&T remains committed to that vision and to you. We have made a big bet on cable and on each of you. A lot of people are watching to see if we can make that bet pay off. I know that you have skills and the determination to show that we can. You can count on my full support. And to signal at least some level of stability, Armstrong also an- nounced that Amos Hostetter would become more actively involved Tough Calls in the company's cable business while we searched for a permanent leader. Many of AT&T's cable employees had worked for Hostetter at the company he founded, Continental Cable. Meanwh