C. Michael Armstrong

After his AT&T fiasco, to where can CEO Mike Armstrong possibly fail upward? Perhaps the U.S. Congress, where wavering and flip-flopping are prerequisites for success. We can only wonder why AT&Ts board has not shown Armstrong the golden door. No matter. We offer him instead the Raspberry Throne — a dubious perch whence he can look on as the fruits of his ill-conceived labor are squandered to the lowest bidder. Mr. Mike spent $110 billion to turn AT&T into the largest cable company in the world. The future, according to Armstrong, lay in bundling services onto one bill — telephone, pay television and Internet. But Wall Street got cold feet last summer, as the Internet bubble began to pop. Armstrong abruptly changed strategy — pitching instead a breakup of AT&T into four parts. The largest of those pieces, AT&T Broadband, was recently in play, with Comcasts Roberts family — Chairman Ralph and President Brian — hoping to pay 50 cents on each dollar Armstrong spent to buy it.