Seriously...WTF?

Next up: ExxonMobilSunocoShell

...and does this mean that they'll have to re-name San Fransisco Pacific Bell - SBC - AT&T Park again ???

I have co workers who started back when it was Ma Bell so it has come full circle for them. How weird!

Crap! I just thought of all the crazy paranoid emails I'm going to have tomorrow morning. Yuck!

This station is now the ultimate power in the universe

Not really...AT&T stopped providing phone service to residential customers a few years ago, and became a wireless company. Its stock was crap, and Ma Bell was pretty much totally washed up. It was bought by Cingular bought about 2 years ago, I think...then Cingular realized the value of the AT&T brand and rechristened the "new" company AT&T, even though it has no resemblance to what AT&T was (even after the creation of the Baby Bells.)

So it's not full circle, really. There is a lot of wireless competition out there, so to say we've returned to the pre-breakup days is not really accurate at all.

Last year SBC bought the whole thing, and now they're buying BellSouth...it has the appearance of reconstituting Ma Bell, but with the incredible explosion of wireless in the last 15 years, it's not really it at all.

But it IS confusing as hell!

Bufu: Not really...AT&T stopped providing phone service to residential customers a few years ago, and became a wireless company


Nope, ATTWS broke off from ATT (height of dot.com era) and was a separate company, which was bought by Cingular (SBC/BellSouth).

Now BellSouth is buying "AT&T" (which was only doing long distance, thanks to the break-up)

Bufu AT&T stopped providing phone service to residential customers a few years ago, and became a wireless company.

Not True... AT&T stopped offering dialtone and long distance to residential customers, but not business. AT&T Wireless, now a part of Cingular, was created when AT&T split again into 4 parts, AT&T telephone, AT&T Wireless, AT&T Cable, and AT&T Business (phone and data). AT&T Cable was purchased by Comcast. AT&T telephone no longer solicited its residential services but still maintained the customers they had. AT&T Wireless got bought out by Cingular (a joint venture between then SBC and Bell South 60/40) leaving the AT&T Business left standing.

SBC bought the two remaining pieces of the puzzle. The left over residential portion, and the global business unit.

KyngNothing RTFA: AT&T is nearing a deal to acquire BellSouth Corp. for $65 billion, according to reports published Sunday.

liquidinsanity: KyngNothing RTFA: AT&T is nearing a deal to acquire BellSouth Corp. for $65 billion, according to reports published Sunday.


The deal would be the latest merger for AT&T, which San Antonio-based SBC purchased in November to create the nation's largest telecom company in terms of subscribers.


Ahhh, sorry, I didn't realize they had already "become" AT&T... I was still thinking of the SBC/AT&T merger...

This will come nowhere close to a monopoly. Thanks to Judge Greene's decision in 1984 and the Telecom Act of 1996, the carrier market has exploded with competition.

/getting tired of people screaming that this is a return to pre-1984 Ma Bell

AT&T begat the Baby Bells including Ameritech and Southwestern Bell, Bellsouth, Nynex, Bell Atlantic, etc. Southwestern Bell merged with Ameritech in the 1990s to become SBC, SBC merged with AT&T in December to become AT&T, and now AT&T is going to merge with BellSouth and presumably keep the venerable AT&T name since it is worth a lot of money. Basically all the Baby Bells are running home to Ma Bell. I guarentee you within 5 years you'll see AT&T merging with Qwest and Verizon. Thanks Telecommunications Act of 1996!

See this for more info about the Baby Bells including a nice tree. Basically the only RBOCs left would be AT&T, Qwest, Cincinnati Bell and Verizon if this merger is allowed.

The wireless market is even harder to follow since it is a relatively new industry and the incumbents have been merging and selling off their wireless divisions to avoid antitrust issues.

/obligatory

Wait a minute, the government surely wouldn't allow a monopoly which was broken up years ago to re-form, would it?

*looks at oil companies*

Nevermind.

No, that's an OLIGOPOLY. Same as a monopoly only you have a couple big companies instead of one. Result is the same for the consumer, though.

Good to see we have an administration in power that gives a shiat about protecting the consumer profits of giant corporations.

AntiNorm: Good to see we have an administration in power that...

Any excuse to bash Bush, eh?

How is this going to impact you? The marketplace will still be competitive, so you can't claim monopolistic practices. Heck, last I checked, there were hundreds of players in the wireless and wireline business. So what's the beef?

NOW can AT&T build some skyscrapers in San Antonio?

And with all these providers ,you can keep changing carriers until you find one that makes decent profit margins to give a crap about you.
Bust up the cablevision monopoly.

Bash Bush. Don't mind if I d........Sorry mr secret service agent. I'm so sorry that your boss is so.......

You see, it's like the Big Bang Theory. AT&T slowly assembled from a large mass of parts. Twenty-five years ago, it exploded into the Baby Bells. Now it's drawing back together, eventually to be exploded again. Hopefully they won't take us with them next time.

If anything the next monopoly will be Verizon. From what I hear, they're nasty.

/Verizon residential customer

I work for AT&T.

So I am really getting a kick out of most of these replies.

Some of you guys are very good at making it sound like you know what you are talking about.

But trust me.... You don't.

I think you just want to make yourself sound smart, when in reality you dont know what you are talking about.

This is how bad info gets passed around.

If you dont know about the topic....Dont make yourself sound like you do.

Cuz some Farkers belive anything they hear.

Everything is consolidating right now. Just look at cell phone companies. Almost all the major ones have consolidated within the last few years: AT&T and Cingular... Sprint and Nextel... Verizon is the only one that hasn't acquired or been acquired, aside from the smaller, regional cell phone companies. The land lines can't compete with the explosion of VoIP or cell phones, so they consolidate as well. They're not NEARLY as powerful as they were 25 years ago, even with this merger.

MMmmm liassez faire capitalism, it's good for no one!

rocinante721:
Next up: ExxonMobilSunocoShell

And then: ExxMobSunocoShellT&TSouthRJRFedExKinkiscoAOLTimeWarnersoft.

And from there, the sky's the limit! I get such a warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that a hundred years from now, a single company will be able to make all our decisions for us.

Anyone here remember what AT&T stands for??? Anyone...anyone...?

Yes! American Telephone and Telegraph! I wonder if they still do much telegraph business.

Class dismissed! :o)

The feds had no right breaking up those two crazy kids!

I also think it's laughable that they're talking about AT&T "competing" with "rival" Verizon. To hell with that. In 2 years, AT&T and Verizon will have merged anyway. Competition is an obsolete concept.

I, for one, welcome our new telephony overlords.

Not to specifically bash Bush or anything, but the trend in our government has been to allow mergers up the wazoo. It started when Clinton with President and I don't expect it to change.

Basically our government (for us Americans) is bought and sold by the corporations regardless democrat or republican. Ironically many of the mergers end up pretty badly (see Daimler-Benz, AOL-TW, etc) but imagine how much innovation could've been bought/cultivated with all that wasted merger money.

Bottom line: expect companies to merge and buy each other at will nowadays; both to our benefit and detriment.

superking: And then: ExxMobSunocoShellT&TSouthRJRFedExKinkiscoAOLTimeWarnersoft.

And when Google buys them all out, it's a done deal!

Bufu: I bet you're a lot of fun at parties.

These companies' core business is shrinking, hence it makes sense to consolidate.

Years ago, it was a growth business. Big difference.

theeagle: And with all these providers ,you can keep changing carriers until you find one that makes decent profit margins to give a crap about you.
Bust up the cablevision monopoly.

Right... you go ahead and bust up the cablevision monopoly and see how well the local markets fare with regards to service and quality.

You saw how well busting up the telephones did for information over copper deployment right... you'd see the same for digital over cable.

I work at BellSouth.

So I am really getting a kick out of most of these replies.

Some of you guys are very good at making it sound like you know what you are talking about.

But trust me.... You don't.

I think you just want to make yourself sound smart, when in reality you dont know what you are talking about.

This is how bad info gets passed around.

If you dont know about the topic....Dont make yourself sound like you do.

Cuz some Farkers belive anything they hear.

/ Had to post this since I really do work at BellSouth

The last commercial we'll ever need


"Buy more stuff, or we'll fire you"

Everyone should read "The rape of Ma Bell" as it details how the breakup of Ma Bell in 1983 was unecessary and destroyed and punished a company for being too successful.

You all need to RTFA!!

Cingular bought Microsoft, which merged with Tupperware and Proctor & Gamble to become AT&T which was bought by SBC. Although SBC figures AT&T is a more widely known name so they're going with it instead. And that my friends is why dolphins can't lay eggs.

It's back.

Anybody else think AT&T sounds too much phonetically AT/AT the large 4 legged walkers from star wars? All we need is a smaller company named Incom T-47 to come in and shoot some cables around their leges and watch them crash and burn.
/I'm a geek
//so sue me

www.LeadHindenburggivesadamn.com could not be found. Please check the name and try again.

If you are a grammar nazi throw a "like" up there between "phonetically" and "AT/AT".

poisonpill: end up pretty badly (see Daimler-Benz

I assume you mean DaimlerChrysler. That helped save Chrysler and now they are the only profitable automaker in Detroit.

Now, a new monopoly is forming, but it's been dead too long and no longer has a soul. Sort of a Zombie AT&T.

I for one support our new Zombie Ma Bell overlords!

jlinch, you beat me to the punch. "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company."

Well Hey The old Marathon oil is almost back to gether so why not Ma BEll.

Although seriously AT&T is only a name. The rest has liitle value. This is more like BEll south buying a new name than anything else. AT&T today compared to AT&T 25 years ago is like Pan AM today versus PanAM back in the 70's. The name's the same but the guts and structure of the companies are but shadows of their former glories.