Prodigy Communications Corp. is
looking for a new lease on its Internet service life cycle in Texas.
In addition to relocating its corporate White Plains, N.Y. headquarters to
Austin, Texas, Prodigy Friday introduced its new
management team and added new board members.
Prodigy’s deepening relationship with SBC
Communications Corp. is the primary motivation for the personnel and
facilities move to the South.
Prodigy and SBC have teamed up to deploy digital
subscriber line services to businesses nationwide. The relocation will
enhance Prodigy’s ability to quickly deploy its co-branded DSL services.
Prodigy board of directors named Charles J. Roesslein, formerly senior vice
president of SBC, as president and chief
executive officer, and Gregory G. Williams, formerly vice
president-Wireless Systems at SBC Technology Resources Inc., as executive
vice president and chief operating office.
Prodigy’s Samer Salameh will remain chairman of the board. David
Trachtenberg, former Prodigy president and chief operating officer, will consult with Roesslein
through the transition to Austin.
The board also approved the appointment of Dan Iannotti, former counsel of
SBC Directory Operations, as vice president, general counsel and secretary.
Andrea Hirsch, former Prodigy general counsel and EVP of Business
Development, will remain as a consultant handling business development
issues for the company. Allen Craft will remain as chief financial officer
and executive vice president of finance.
As part of the strategic alliance between Prodigy and SBC, Prodigy’s board
of directors now includes three representatives from Carso Global Telecom and Telmex.
The board recommended and approved the relocation of Prodigy’s corporate
based. Austin is also home to SBC research labs, and as part of the
agreement, the two companies will jointly coordinate research, product
development, and marketing efforts.
Roesslein said more than 200 employees are expected to relocate to Austin
by early 2001, with upwards of 350 employees by the end of next year.
“The relocation to Austin and the subsequent change in the management team
are designed to leverage the assets of SBC Communications to further
enhance Prodigy’s competitive position in its drive to be the world’s
leading broadband DSL ISP,” Roesslein said.
“Prodigy has achieved tremendous success since it went online from being
the first consumer online service and the first bilingual Spanish/English
ISP in the nation to its most recent partnership with SBC, making it the
third largest fee-based ISP in the U.S.,” Roesslein added.
In May, SBC and Prodigy completed the transaction to combine their consumer
and small business Internet operations.
Prodigy’s Salameh said he welcomed the new management teams efforts to
leverage Prodigy’s strong start in the broadband race.
“Together, we are positioning Prodigy to become a world-class competitor
for broadband-enabled technologies and services,” Salameh said.
