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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