SBC purchasing AT&T

[Patrick]

At one time, AT&T was the only phone company. Now it's about to disappear completely. Cingular (owned by SBC) recently purchased AT&T Wireless. Looks like SBC is gonig after the entire corporate giant now.

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"SBC in Talks to Buy Rival AT&T

NEW YORK - AT&T Corp. shares climbed more than 7 percent Thursday amid reports that SBC Communications Inc., the nation's second biggest regional phone company, is in talks to acquire America's once-dominant telephone brand for at least $15 billion.

AT&T is a 120-year-old telephone icon once known as Ma Bell that handled the nation's telephone calls before it was broken apart 21 years ago. The talks were reported Thursday by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the discussions.

AT&T shares rose $1.35, or 7.3 percent, to $19.80 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites), while SBC shares fell 53 cents, or 2 percent, to $24.05.

An AT&T acquisition would give San Antonio-based SBC a company that still has a sizable list of government and corporate clients for long-distance and other telecommunications services, despite several years of financial struggles and customer losses.

AT&T still has nearly 30 million long-distance customers. SBC has about 50 million local-phone customers, mostly in the Midwest and South.
Citing executives, The Times said a deal would likely cost SBC more than $16 billion.

The talks are considered "fluid" and "very, very sensitive," the Times reported, citing executives. The Journal said executives have met sporadically over the past few weeks and that no final decisions have been made.

AT&T declined to comment on the reports, citing a policy against discussing "rumor or speculation about mergers, acquisitions, divestitures or other business combinations," said AT&T spokesman Jim Byrnes.

A message was left for SBC but it was not immediately returned. The papers said SBC had declined to comment.

In July, Bedminster, N.J.-based AT&T said it would no longer market new residential long-distance business. But the company is still aggressively seeking to sign up homes for Internet-based phone service.

Last year, AT&T slashed 12,500 jobs as it retreated from the consumer telephone business.

[mranderson]

...And even more hard working Americans out of work as a result.

[Jay]

Well maybe now they will stop crying about being under the thumb of the corporation commission.

[mranderson]

13,000 less jobs as a result. Typical. Some goon of a corporation buys another, and what happens? WHAM! Hard working people lose their jobs so the executive staff can enjoy their wealthy perks and the working stiff can go on welfare.


THAT AIN'T RIGHT!

[rxis]

Can you believe the compensation for Lucent executives even during and after all their troubles? Its unbelievable. Meanwhile, retired employees have to pay more for their insurance and I think there is also an increase of deductions from pensions. Does anyone know what is going to become of the old plant now that the contract manufacturer left?

[swake]

AT&T isn't gone, SBC will be changing it's name to AT&T even though it's SBC taking over. SBC is a newer brand and only a regional brand.

Question for me is will Cingular take on the AT&T wireless name when the sale completes. AT&T retained the name AT&T Wireless as part of the sale, but with Cingular parent SBC buying AT&T will they rebrand all the stores they just rebranded? Does BellSouth (minority owner in Cingular) have a say in this?

Also, with Verizon buying MCI will Verizon take the MCI name or is MCI too tainted from the MCIWorldcom fiasco?

One area of concern, Wiltel in Tulsa is in trouble here. Wiltel, which sells access on it's huge fiber network to other carriers is the big loser here so far. Wiltel's biggest customer is SBC (70% of all Wiltel traffic today) and with the merger with AT&T SBC will no longer need to use the Wiltel network. SBC will owe a several hundred million dollar contract breakup fee to Wiltel, but how is Wiltel going to replace it's 70% customer? My guess is that the loser in the MCI battle, Qwest, is in need a big, cheap LD network, and will go after Wiltel. Will Wiltel bite?

MCI has pledged that even with a merger with Verizon they will live up to the deal with the the state of Oklahoma to add 1600 jobs in Tulsa as part of the Worldcom settlement. This is actually more likely to happen sooner with a stable and cash rich Verizon rather than a struggling independant MCI.

Wiltel is in trouble, they need to work on a deal with Qwest or someone as fast as possible. Maybe they can also use the cash from SBC to buy some clecs and string thier own little business together. This will be interesting to see how it goes down.

Telecom is out of it's funk, and is changing rapidly, Tulsa as a major telecom center, is going to be changing along with the industry. Tulsa today is the headquarters for Wiltel and has major offices for MCI and SBC and has a big Cingular call center, not to mention several other telecom companies.