The acquisition of BellSouth Corp. by AT&T Inc. would bring more than half of the traditional telephone business back under one roof and into the company once known as “Ma Bell,” whose history dates back more than 125 years to the invention of the telephone itself.
The following are some of the main developments of AT&T and its precursor organizations:
1877: The Bell Telephone Company is formed by Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, and two other men.
1882: The company, now called the American Bell Telephone Company, acquires a controlling interest in Western Electric Company, which becomes its manufacturing unit. The collective enterprise becomes known as the Bell System.
1885: The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated as a subsidiary of American Bell, and is chartered to build and operate original long-distance telephone network.
1899: AT&T is made the parent company of the Bell System.
1939: AT&T controls 83 percent of all U.S. telephones, 98 percent of all long-distance telephone lines and manufactures 90 percent of all U.S. phone equipment, according to an encyclopedia entry.
1949: Justice Department brings suit against AT&T under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
1974: U.S. government files an antitrust suit against AT&T to break up the Bell System.
1982: AT&T agrees to divest itself of 22 of its regional companies, and in 1984 the companies were converted into seven regional phone companies, which become known as “Baby Bells.”
Jan. 1, 1984: A new, post-Bell System AT&T emerges. Of $149.5 billion in assets it had on Dec. 31, it now has $34 billion. Of more than 1 million employees, it now has fewer than 400,000. For stockholders, the breakup is a windfall, with the sum of the parts far exceeding the pre-breakup value of AT&T. But a stock market crash in 1987 is a sobering experience for many AT&T investors.
1991: AT&T acquires computer maker NCR in a $7.3 billion deal as it ventures into new technologies that supplement its long-distance service.
1994: AT&T agrees to acquire McCaw Cellular Communications, establishing a foothold in wireless telecommunications.
1995: AT&T says it will split into three publicly traded companies. The first, Lucent Technologies, is a systems and equipment company. The second, NCR, is a computer company. The third, AT&T, will retain the communications services business.
1997: C. Michael Armstrong becomes chief executive of AT&T and describes a focus on providing voice, data and video services. Armstrong will end up spending more than $100 billion to acquire cable-television companies and assemble a one-stop shop for communications and entertainment services.
October 2000: Armstrong announces plans to restructure the organization into four publicly held companies: AT&T Broadband, AT&T Wireless, AT&T Business and AT&T Consumer.
June 2001: AT&T announces its wireless telephone arm, AT&T Wireless Group Inc., will become an independent company.
December 2001: Comcast Corp. agrees to buy AT&T’s cable systems, AT&T Broadband for about $30.5 billion.
February 2002: AT&T introduces a new consumer calling plan allowing unlimited calls for a flat fee, marking an effort to slow the decline of its revenues and combat competition from the Baby Bells and wireless companies.
April 2004: AT&T is removed from the Dow Jones industrial average and replaced by Verizon Communications Inc.. AT&T had been part of the bellwether average since 1939.
July 2004: AT&T announces it will no longer market its services to residential customers, saying without the rules for local access it cannot profitably sell long-distance service.
January 2005: SBC Communications, the second largest U.S. phone company, agrees to buy AT&T for about $16 billion.
October 2005: U.S. antitrust and communications regulators approve SBC Communications’ acquisition of AT&T with several conditions, which included providing competitors access to some buildings, some price controls, and ensuring customers have unfettered access to the Internet.
November 2005: SBC Communications closes its acquisition of AT&T Corp. and takes the AT&T name.
March 2006: AT&T announces plans to acquire BellSouth Corp., its partner in the Cingular Wireless joint venture and the No. 3 U.S. local phone company, for about $67 billion.
