IP: Industry Standard on Kennard's new job

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,24173,00.html
>
>
> Former FCC Head Follows the Money
> By Aaron Pressman
> May 02 2001 04:00 PM PDT
> William Kennard joins the Carlyle Group, a $13 billion private investment
> fund, and looks to make big bets on telecom companies worldwide.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> William Kennard spent more than three years as chairman of the Federal
> Communications Commission listening to pleas from telecom companies large
> and small for regulatory favors.
>
> Since stepping down as FCC chairman in January, Kennard's meeting schedule
> has dropped off, but he's expecting it to pick back up in a hurry. And this
> time, the companies will be asking Kennard to show them the money.
>
> The Yale Law School grad announced Wednesday that he's signed on as a
> managing director at the Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private
> investment funds.
>
> The $13 billion firm, based in Washington, D.C., but with offices around the
> globe, just closed a new $3.9 billion fund and wants to find bargains in the
> beaten down telecommunications sector, Kennard said.
>
> "It's a really interesting time to be investing," he said. "The landscape is
> just starting to clarify."
>
> Kennard thinks Wall Street has overreacted to problems some upstart carriers
> experienced trying to compete with dominant players such as Verizon and SBC.
> "I think the competitive local exchange carriers are undervalued now,
> irrationally so." Other likely investments include companies in the fields
> of wireless service and Internet Protocol telephony, he adds.
>
> Kennard, the FCC's first African American chairman, is a lifelong Democrat
> and friend of former Vice President Al Gore. He raised some eyebrows,
> including one on the New York Post's "Page Six" gossip column, for signing
> up with Carlyle and its lineup of top Republicans such as former President
> George Bush and former Secretary of State Jim Baker.
>
> "They have a lot of prominent Democrats, too," Kennard said, noting that
> former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt is another
> recent hire.



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