ving that he had briefed Armstrong on the purchase, AT&T's CEO clearly didn't know anything about it. Under the com- pany's schedule of authorizations, any purchase of that size had to be reviewed by its board of directors. This time Armstrong sent off a fiery memo demanding to know what was going on. But over the weekend, as he was still waiting to hear from Hindery, Armstrong received re- ports that Hindery had been criticizing him to the company's largest institutional investor. Armstrong decided he'd had enough. He called me at home on Sunday night and told me to prepare a news release. Hindery would be leaving the company. Casting Is Everything Exit Hindery When Hindery came in for Armstrong's regular Monday meeting on October 4, he didn't seem to have a care in the world. They were closeted together at lunch, and when Hindery emerged, he seemed as ebullient as ever. I gave him a draft of the news release I had prepared, with space for his quote. He gave me a brief paragraph expressing his confidence in "Mike's strategy" and stating what a pleasure it had been to work with him, what an honor it had been to be president of AT&T's broadband division and TCI, how much he would miss the cable industry, and how much he cherished the people who worked for him. Then Hindery flew back to Denver to be with his people when the announcement was made. For once, the story did not leak. We issued the news release at 7:30 A.M. on October 6. CNBC's David Faber said that while Hindery's departure might seem abrupt, "sources" told him that he had been "openly talking about leaving for months." Hindery himself told Dow Jones that it was "the most natural consequence of a big merger" once he had accomplished what he had been asked to do. AT&T's stock went up about 4 percent on the news, after months of trading side- ways. The next day's major newspapers, however, stressed the person- ality conflicts between Hindery and Armstrong, the culture clash between the cable and telephone companies, and an especially curious event of the