Standing tall

The recession? Well, American Tower locked in its business before the downturn hit. The company, which develops and manages cellphone telecommunications towers, signs long-term leases with its customers. So revenue, which grew 9 percent last year, is expected to rise another 9 percent in 2009.

The credit crunch? Taiclet said he cleaned up his balance sheet before the crisis hit, and the company can borrow if the right property for a new tower comes along at the right price.

And about those properties: They've been dropping steadily in price. So sites American Tower was just kicking the tires on last year are now practical to purchase, like the group of cellphone towers in India it recently acquired.

"My biggest task is not to ward off the effects of recession, but to take advantage of the opportunity," Taiclet said. "We are leaning forward in our chair. We are looking for assets we like, where perhaps the price was too high before. If those prices come down, or can be brought down through negotiation, we can finance acquisitions with our free cash flow."

Taiclet said he wasn't prescient about the financial collapse, just cautious.

"We consciously did not overextend our balance sheet over the past few years," he said, "so we are operating from a position of real financial strength."

Taiclet said the company should be thought of as a real estate developer. Instead of building apartments or shopping malls, it builds the towers that make cellphone coverage possible. And while owners of apartment buildings and shopping malls are dealing with vacancies and dropping rents, landlords for big cellphone operators like AT&T and Verizon are looking toward the longer term. The carriers can't compromise when it comes to network quality, so their need to rent space on additional towers in new locations continues to grow.

A fighter pilot during the first Gulf War who later became a consultant for McKinsey & Co., Taiclet joined American Tower in 2001. The company's stock was trading for less than a dollar - a result of the industry meltdown that left the country with too much telecommunications infrastructure. He quickly became chief executive, succeeding founder Steven Dodge, and helped right the company through a series of acquisitions and a sale of noncore businesses. The firm has 23,700 towers, in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and India.

In 2008, American Tower had nearly $1.6 billion in revenue and net income of $236 million. The 9 percent revenue increase projected for this year is the result of continued growth of cellphone usage, especially for data transmission.

The only recession-prompted accommodation in strategy Taiclet will acknowledge is in the firm's stock repurchase plan. Like many companies, American Tower said it would take advantage of low stock prices to buy back shares. With fewer shares circulating, each one becomes more valuable, goes the thinking, so the strategy is a way of using extra cash to tangibly help shareholders.

American Tower's shares have held up better than many. Trading at above $30 a share in early May, stock is down nearly a third from a 52-week high last year of $46. Taiclet said he is delaying share repurchases to keep as much cash on hand should another attractive asset come along.

"We want to make sure we have as much dry powder as we can," he said.