Jack Grubman has a new job. The former star telecommunications analyst for Citigroup Inc.'s Salomon Smith Barney unit who resigned in disgrace, was retained as a strategic consultant by Distinctive Devices Inc., the Fort Lee, New Jersey-based software and hardware developer said on Friday.
"We look forward to leveraging the experience and long standing relationships Jack has developed in the telecom and media sectors to advance our strategic planning process" and develop new business, Chief Executive Sanjay Mody said in a statement.
Distinctive Devices, which has units in Germany and India and whose shares trade on the over-the-counter bulletin board, said Grubman's activities will focus solely on enhancing the company's business.
Grubman is a managing member of consulting firm Magee Group LLC. Officials of Distinctive Devices and Magee were not immediately available for comment.
At Salomon, Grubman was known for his dogged support of WorldCom Inc., now known as MCI, even as shares of the long-distance company, which eventually sought bankruptcy protection, collapsed. He also touted such other telecoms as Global Crossing Ltd. and Winstar Communications Inc. that eventually also imploded.
He became a symbol for criticism that Wall Street stock analysts issued biased research to win investment banking business. Grubman, who was paid a reported $20 million or more a year during the height of the late-1990s telecom euphoria, resigned from Salomon in August 2002.
