Ma Bell is Back, Baby!

Remember back when the Feds broke up Ma Bell into all of those regional Bells? Yeah, remind us why they did that again?

The nations largest telephone company AT&T (which used to be SBC until they bought the company and took/kept the name) has just announced that it is buying up the number three company, BellSouth for stock valued at $67 billion. The joined company would not only serve nearly 70 million customers in 22 states but would also own the entirety of Cingular Wireless.

We wonder what Verizon is going to do to top this one.

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By Garth Johnston in News on March 5, 2006 4:00 PM

News: National

Comments [rss]

Andrew J. Lederer

And SBC was composed of several of the old Baby Bells before it merged with AT&T. After BellSouth, is Verizon the only chunk not reconstituted into AT&T?

Toby

I think it is only a matter of time for Verizon and AT&T to merge, and we'll have the old Bell System in another few years.

S.D.

"the Chippendale building"? They occupy a strip joint??

;-)

IMO, it will never be the AT&T of old. AT&T used to be a major innovator, but now is just another company that got eaten up. This is really SBC relabeled along the lines that Chrysler claims to have made Jeeps in WWII by acquiring AMC...

rfid4dna

Bruce Kushnick, the intrepid crusador against the Bell Companies, will be reading excerpts from his new book, "The $200 Billion Broadband Scandal" at The Half King, 505 W 23rd, Monday at 7PM. Details here.

Matthew Caldecutt

I'm surprised that no one has commented on the logo. Apparently, they're now using a three-dimensional Death Star.

gothamite

shush ny, this is big news and will have a big effect on the city...

Jen

I'm personally a fan of this post, as AT&T used to be headquartered in NYC (most recently at 550 Madison Avenue, the Chippendale building that Sony now occupies - though there were many downtown AT&T offices). I'm an AT&T brat, so it's actually crazy to think that AT&T was once so powerful, only to be swallowed up by SBC last fall...and now for the "new" AT&T to buy Bell South.