30 S. Wacker Dr., Chicago 60606; 312-750-5000
COMPANY
Founded: 1983
Year-end: Dec. 31
Employees: 66,000; 22,000 in Illinois
Foreign sales: None of $12.6 billion
Stock: 365-day close
High: $44.75
Low: $37.00
April 28: $44.75
April 1, 1995 value of $1,000 in company stock
Purchased 1994: $1,135.99
Purchased 1990: $1,778.13
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Richard C. Notebaert, 47, since 1994
Cash compensation: $2,052,178, up 9 percent
Options granted in 1994: $3,047,940, up 106 percent
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised: None
Shares owned: 155,650 of 552.6 million
In the arcane world where utility regulation meets accounting, Ameritech did a radical thing in 1994: The telephone company abandoned the accounting system followed by regulated utilities and embraced one used by market-oriented competitors. This required taking a $2.2 billion after-tax charge and was made possible by regulatory changes won by the company in all five states where it provides local phone service: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Although invisible to customers, the accounting change underscores Ameritech’s commitment to lead the telecommunications industry out of regulated-monopoly status and into the competitive market. Richard C. Notebaert, who just completed his first year as Ameritech chairman and CEO, notes that one-third of his company’s revenues are now subject to competition.
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The Tribune’s business reporting staff profiles the Chicago area’s Top 100 companies, based on market capitalization as of April 28, 1995.
The information in the profiles was obtained from the following sources:
– Company reports, including annual reports, public stock offering prospectuses and proxy statements.
– Interviews with company officials.
– Reports by securities analysts.
– News reports.
– Dow Jones News/Retrieval, an on-line service of Dow Jones & Co., New York.
– Bloomberg Business News, New York.
– TMS Stocks, a subsidiary of Tribune Media Services Inc., a unit of Tribune Co., Chicago.
– Morningstar Inc., Chicago.
– “First Chicago Guide,” published by Scholl Communications, Deerfield.
– “Hoover’s Handbook,” The Reference Press Inc., Austin, Texas.
Each profile includes the 365-day high, low and April 28, 1995, closing stock price for the company. Theoretical total-return investment results for shares purchased for $1,000 a year ago and five years ago also are shown. The date on which those calculations are based is April 1. The results assume reinvestment of dividends on a quarterly basis.
Each profile includes the chief executive’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1994, along with the change from the prior year. The figure for the CEO’s stock holdings includes shares the CEO had the right to acquire within 60 days of the proxy statement’s issuance.
