Principal Reports Hike in Plan Sponsor Internet
Use
April 21, 2000 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Highlighting the
increased appeal of the Internet to plan sponsors, The
Principal Financial Group Thursday reported a 700% increase
in online transactions by its plan sponsor clients.
At year-end 1999, almost 12,000 plan sponsors were
reporting all cash and data transactions via the Internet,
said Bill Kelly, vice president and chief information
officer.
In December 1998, 7% of targeted cash transactions were
submitted using the company’s Internet service. One year
later, December 1999, that number grew dramatically to 81%.
Small, mid-sized companies
“Over the past few years we have seen a significant
increase in small to medium-size companies moving toward an
electronic workplace,” said Kelly.
The company reported over 41.6 million cash transactions
were made online by retirement plan sponsors in 1999
through Principal Direct Connect, which gives plan sponsors
the ability to transfer their retirement data
electronically.
February 9, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - More than 150
major institutional investors and shareholders of AT&T,
including public and Taft-Hartley pension funds, joined in a
conference call to discuss potential problems surrounding the
breakup of AT&T.
The call, sponsored by the Communications Workers of
America (CWA) and an AFL-CIO program, addressed issues such
as creating long-term shareholder value and rejecting the
corporate restructuring plan.
The CWA and AFL-CIO are urging shareholders to reject
AT&T’s “ill-conceived” restructuring plan at the May 23
annual meeting and at the special shareholder meeting later
this summer. The plan calls for establishing
broadband and consumer tracking stocks.
The labor groups also said shareholders should demand
that the AT&T board of directors step up involvement in
company operations and refocus attention on operations
integration and long-term strategy “to create and reinforce
shareholder value.” The CWA and AFL-CIO also are seeking
support for a shareholder proposal calling for separation
of the chairman and chief executive officer position.
Participants on the call, representing banks, public
employee retirement funds, asset managers, analysts and
joint union-management pension funds, together hold 20% of
the outstanding shares of AT&T stock, or 680 million
shares.
Michael Garland of the AFL-CIO Office of Investment,
outlined labor’s position on the proposed breakup and the
implications for long-term shareholder value. Garland
called the proposed breakup of AT&T into four separate
companies – consumer, business, wireless and broadband – “a
costly, two-year diversion from the real problems AT&T
confronts, one that will destroy shareholder value.’
“AT&T should be using its competitive advantage and
unique strengths to create value,’ Garland said. Those
“unique strengths” include a diversified portfolio of
telecom services, a huge consumer and business customer
base, a leading reputation for quality and reliability, an
experienced workforce and a dominant brand name, he
said.
AT&T’s initial bundling strategy was designed to
capitalize on these advantages. A January 2000 showed that
66% of business customers and 63% of residential customers
want bundled services, Garland noted. Further, leading
telecom competitors provide such bundled services, but
AT&T has been unable to implement bundling, failing to
integrate sales and services and other systems, he
said.