Randall Stephenson becomes CEO of AT&T

We knew he was coming, and now his coronation is almost complete: Randall Stephenson becomes the new CEO of AT&T on Monday. Now that ex-CEO Ed Whitacre is probably off on a cruise somewhere, Mr. Stephenson takes the reigns of the company just as it's about to head full on into the month of the iPhone. Lots of corporate speak about innovation and caring about the customers is undoubtedly abound, so we'll spare you. As Stephenson is moving up from the Chief Operating Officer role and has been described as the former CEO's "understudy," we can't imagine that he'll be taking any massive steps away from the company's comfort zone. We'll find out soon enough, as Stephenson is scheduled to keynote the NXTcomm on June 19 in Chicago: any bets on whether he'll flash an iPhone? Oh wait, he already did, just like seemingly every other exec at AT&T.