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AT&T

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AT&T Inc.
Company typePublic (NYSE: T)
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded1983[1]
HeadquartersSan Antonio, Texas, USA
Key people
Randall L. Stephenson, Chairman/CEO; Richard Lindner, CFO
ProductsWireless, Telephone, Internet, Television
RevenueIncrease $63.055 billion USD (2007)[2]
−4,587,000,000 United States dollar (2022) Edit this on Wikidata
Increase $7.356 billion USD (2007)[2]
Total assets551,622,000,000 United States dollar (2021) Edit this on Wikidata
Number of employees
301,840
Websitewww.att.com

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is the largest provider of both local and long distance telephone services, wireless service, and DSL Internet access in the United States. AT&T is based in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Formerly SBC Communications, Inc., the company shed its name and took on the iconic AT&T moniker and the T stock-trading symbol (for "telephone") after its acquisition of AT&T Corporation.

Since the break-up of American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1984, most of the companies spun off from it (the "Baby Bells") have merged into three major US telecommunications groups: Verizon, Qwest, and AT&T Inc. Most of these companies are made up primarily of former components of American Telephone and Telegraph Company. For the new AT&T, these include many Bell Operating Companies and the long distance division. [3]

History

Founding, expansion

File:SWBellC.png
Southwestern Bell Corporation logo, 1984–1995

AT&T Inc. was founded in 1983 as Southwestern Bell Corporation, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. It was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies, or "Baby Bells." The company — a holding company for Southwestern Bell Telephone Company — was created as a result of U.S. antitrust action against American Telephone & Telegraph in 1983. It took full control of Southwestern Bell Telephone on January 1, 1984.

In 1993, Southwestern Bell Corp. moved its headquarters to San Antonio, Texas, and, during its annual meeting of stockholders in 1995, the company announced that its name would be changed to SBC Communications, Inc. The name change was an effort to reinforce the company's national and global reach and the company not only stated that "SBC" wasn't an acronym for Southwestern Bell Corporation, but that it did not stand for anything at all.

File:SBC-star-logo.png
SBC corporate logo, 1997–2001

SBC then proceeded (as permitted by the Telecommunications Act of 1996) to acquire fellow Baby Bell Pacific Telesis, the Regional Bell operating company serving Nevada and California, in 1997 and the former independent Bell System franchise SNET (Southern New England Telephone).

SBC then announced plans to acquire Ameritech, the Regional Bell operating company serving Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, and told the FCC that it would allow competitors access to local markets where it had had a monopoly if the FCC would allow them to acquire Ameritech. The FCC agreed and in May 1998, SBC and Ameritech announced the merger would move forward. After making several organizational changes (such as the sale of Ameritech Wireless to GTE) to satisfy state and Federal regulators, the two merged on October 8, 1999. The FCC later fined SBC Communications $6 million for failure to comply with agreements made in order to secure approval of the merger.

On November 1, 1999, SBC became a part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

File:SBCLogo.png
SBC corporate logo, 1995–1997; 2001–2005

In 2002, SBC ended marketing its operating companies under different names, and simply opted to give its companies different doing business as names based on the state (a practice already in use by Ameritech since 1993), and it gave the holding companies it had purchased d/b/a names based on their general region.

AT&T Corporation acquisition

File:Newatt.png

On January 31, 2005, SBC announced that it would purchase AT&T for more than $16 billion. The announcement came almost 8 years after SBC and AT&T called off their first merger talks and nearly a year after initial merger talks between AT&T and BellSouth fell apart. AT&T stockholders, meeting in Denver, approved the merger on June 30, 2005. The U.S. Department of Justice cleared the merger on October 27, 2005, and the Federal Communications Commission approved it on October 31, 2005. The merger was finalized on November 18 2005.[4] SBC changed its corporate name to AT&T Inc., and it adopted an updated logo.

File:Lockup.gif
SBC-AT&T heritage transition logo, used 2005-2006

On December 1, 2005 the combined company began trading under the historic "T" stock ticker symbol on the NYSE. To differentiate from the preceding company, AT&T is formally known as "AT&T Inc.", while the preceding company was "AT&T Corp."

BellSouth acquisition

On Friday December 29, 2006, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the acquisition of BellSouth valued at approximately $86 billion (or 1.325 shares of AT&T for each share of BellSouth at the close of trading December 29, 2006).[5] The new combined company retained the name AT&T. [6] The deal consolidated ownership of both Cingular Wireless and Yellowpages.com, once joint ventures between BellSouth and AT&T. All services, including wireless, are currently offered under the AT&T name.[7]

Transition to new media

New Chairman and CEO, Randall Stephenson, discussed how wireless services are the core of "The New AT&T". [8] With declining sales of traditional home phone lines, AT&T plans to roll out various new medias such as VideoShare, U-verse, and to extend its reach in High Speed Internet into rural areas across the country. He also has stated that AT&T will not make any more acquisitions for the time being. AT&T announced on June 29, 2007, however, that it was acquiring Dobson Communications.

Bell Operating Companies

New AT&T payphone signage.

Of the twenty-two Bell Operating Companies which AT&T owned prior to the 1984 agreement to divest, eleven (BellSouth Telecommunications combines two former BOCs) have become a part of the new AT&T Inc. with the completion of their acquisition of BellSouth Corporation on December 29, 2006:[9]

AT&T owns the following operating companies not considered a Bell Operating Company:

Former operating companies

The following companies have gone to defunct status under SBC/AT&T ownership:

"Doing business as" names

AT&T office with new logo and orange highlight from the former Cingular.

On January 15, 2006, AT&T began using new "doing business as" names for its Bell Operating Companies and their holding companies. The following d/b/a list shows the d/b/a names of each company, with its true legal name in parentheses, listed in order of acquisition. Holding companies are listed in bold; the only exception is Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P., which is not a holding company, as it has always been directly held by AT&T Inc. since its inception as Southwestern Bell Corporation.

AT&T Corporation and its holdings have been omitted, as its companies continue to do business under their legal name.

  • AT&T Inc.
    • AT&T Southwest (Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P. as a whole)
    • AT&T Arkansas (Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P.)
    • AT&T Kansas (Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P.)
    • AT&T Missouri (Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P.)
    • AT&T Oklahoma (Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P.)
    • AT&T Texas (Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P.)
    • AT&T West (Pacific Telesis Group)
      • AT&T California (Pacific Bell Telephone Company)
      • AT&T Nevada (Nevada Bell Telephone Company)
    • AT&T East (Southern New England Telecommunications Corporation)
      • AT&T Connecticut (The Southern New England Telephone Company)
    • AT&T Midwest (AT&T Teleholdings, Inc.)
      • AT&T Illinois (Illinois Bell Telephone Company)
      • AT&T Indiana (Indiana Bell Telephone Company)
      • AT&T Michigan (Michigan Bell Telephone Company)
      • AT&T Ohio (The Ohio Bell Telephone Company)
      • AT&T Wisconsin (Wisconsin Bell, Inc.)
    • AT&T South (BellSouth Corporation)
      • AT&T Southeast (BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. as a whole)
      • AT&T Alabama (BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc.)
      • AT&T Florida (BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc.)
      • AT&T Georgia (BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc.)
      • AT&T Kentucky (BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc.)
      • AT&T Louisiana (BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc.)
      • AT&T Mississippi (BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc.)
      • AT&T North Carolina (BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc.)
      • AT&T South Carolina (BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc.)
      • AT&T Tennessee (BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc.)

Corporate governance

AT&T's current board mainly consists of members of SBC's board of directors.

Contributions to political campaigns

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, AT&T is the United States' second largest donor to political campaigns, having contributed more than US$ 36 million since 1990, 56% and 44% of which went to Republican and Democratic recipients, respectively. A key political issue for AT&T is the question of which businesses win the right to profit by providing broadband internet access in the United States.[10]

Censorship controversy

In August 2007, the band Pearl Jam performed in Chicago at Lollapalooza which was being web-broadcast by AT&T. The band, while playing the song "Daughter", started playing a version of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" but with altered lyrics critical of president George Bush. These lyrics included "George Bush, leave this world alone!" and, "George Bush, find yourself another home!". Listeners to AT&T's web broadcast only heard the first line because the rest was censored[11] although, "AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said that the silencing was a mistake"[12]

In September 2007, AT&T changed [citation needed] their legal policy to state that "AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice for conduct that AT&T believes"..."(c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries."[13]

Privacy controversy

Further information: [[:NSA call database]]

In 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation lodged a class action lawsuit, Hepting v. AT&T, which alleged that AT&T had allowed agents of the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor phone and Internet communications of AT&T customers without warrants. If true, this would violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. AT&T has yet to confirm or deny that monitoring by the NSA is occurring. In April 2006, a retired former AT&T technician, Mark Klein, lodged an affidavit supporting this allegation.[14] The Department of Justice has stated they will intervene in this lawsuit by means of State Secrets Privilege.[15]

In May 2006, USA Today reported that all international and domestic calling records had been handed over to the National Security Agency by AT&T, Verizon, SBC, and BellSouth for the purpose of creating a massive calling database.[16] The portions of the new AT&T that had been part of SBC Communications before November 18, 2005 were not mentioned.

On June 21, 2006, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that AT&T had rewritten rules on their privacy policy. The policy, to take effect June 23, 2006, says that "AT&T — not customers — owns customers' confidential info and can use it 'to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process.' "[17]

On August 22, 2007, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell confirmed that AT&T was one of the telecommunications companies that assisted with the government's warrantless wire-tapping program.[18]

Places/events/partners named after AT&T

The AT&T Center in San Antonio

See also

References

  1. ^ The current company named AT&T was incorporated on October 5, 1983 as Southwestern Bell Corporation, later SBC Communications. Its buyout of AT&T Corporation resulted in its name changing from SBC Communications, Inc. to AT&T Inc. (see: "SEC 8-K" (Press release). AT&T. 2006-04-28. Retrieved 2007-09-29.)
  2. ^ a b "Investor Briefing (4th Quarter 2006)" (PDF) (Press release). AT&T. 2007-01-25. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  3. ^ Kleinfield, Sonny (1981). The biggest company on earth: a profile of AT&T. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. ISBN 0-03-045326-7.
  4. ^ "New AT&T Launches" (Press release). AT&T. 2005-11-18. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  5. ^ Vorman, Julie (2006-12-29). "AT&T closes $86 billion BellSouth deal". Reuters. Retrieved 2007-09-29.]
  6. ^ Bartash, Jeffry (2006-03-05). "AT&T to pay $67 billion for BellSouth". Dow Jones Market Watch. Retrieved 2007-09-29. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "AT&T and BellSouth Join to Create a Premier Global Communications Company" (Press release). AT&T. 2006-12-29. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  8. ^ "AT&T's new chief dialed in". Chicago Tribune. 24 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "Agreements Between SNET America, Inc. (SAI) DBA AT&T Long Distance East, and AT&T Telephone Companies". AT&T. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  10. ^ "AT&T Inc". The Center For Responsive Politics. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  11. ^ Grossberg, Josh (2007-08-09). "AT&T's Pearl Jamming?". E Online. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  12. ^ Roberts, Michelle (2007-08-10). "AT&T: Pearl Jam edit a mistake". Associated Press. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  13. ^ "AT&T Legal Policy". AT&T. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  14. ^ Singel, Ryan (2006-04-07). "Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room". Wired. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  15. ^ "Government Moves to Intervene in AT&T Surveillance Case" (Press release). Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). 2006-04-28. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  16. ^ Cauley, Leslie (2006-05-11). "NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  17. ^ Lazarus, David (2006-06-21). "AT&T rewrites rules: Your data isn't yours". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  18. ^ Shrader, Katherine (2007-08-22). "Spy chief reveals classified surveillance details". Associated Press. Retrieved 2007-09-29.

Corporate information

Articles

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