TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Armstrong Plans to Stay at Hughes: Refuting a published report, GM Hughes Electronics Corp. Chairman C. Michael Armstrong said he is not in talks to become president of AT&T; Corp. “I have no knowledge of who AT&T; is considering, I am not in any discussions with AT&T; and I am staying at Hughes,” Armstrong said in a statement he issued in Tokyo, where he was introducing Hughes’ DirecTV satellite-to-home television service in Japan. (See photo on D4.) AT&T; spokesman James Byrnes declined to comment. The New York Times had reported that Armstrong, who turns 58 on Friday, was the leading candidate to succeed Alex Mandl, who abruptly resigned as AT&T;’s president in August. Los Angeles-based Hughes is a unit of General Motors Corp.