At least AT&T waited until after Tiger Woods’ birthday to lower the boom and announce they are severing sponsorship ties with the embattled superstar golfer.
The telecom titan surmised that Tiger’s tawdry tales were too much of a liability to have its iconic logo emblazoned on his golf bags. On Thursday, AT&T joined Accenture, Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer, Proctor & Gamble [which owns Gillette] and other companies in retreating from Woods or divorcing from him altogether. AT&T did, however, offer him a get-well statement as they bid adieu.
AT&T apparently perused over the report produced by scientists at the University of California-Davis that puts total losses for shareholders like Gillette and AT&T at a colossal $12 billion. Two economics professors studied the stock market returns in the first two weeks immediately following Woods’ car crash and sex scandal and concluded through “our analysis … that while having a celebrity of Tiger Woods’ stature as an endorser has an undeniable upside, the downside risk is substantial, too,” Dr. Victor Stango said.
Investors in the three main sports related firms that publicly stuck with Woods – EA Sports, Nike and Gatorade – have fared the worst of all the companies, the UC-Davis report states. Woods had been earning over $100 million a year from endorsements, but his unprecedented cultural collapse will undoubtedly bring in substantially less in the coming year. –terry shropshire
