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WASHINGTON - The Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved AT&T Inc.'s $86 billion buyout of BellSouth Corp. Friday, the day after the company offered a new slate of concessions for consumers and competitors. The FCC's approval was the last major regulatory hurdle for the proposed deal, which is the largest telecommunications merger in U.S. history. Lawyers for AT&T and the two Democratic commissioners who had opposed the merger, hammered out a compromise, the details of which were released Thursday night. Among the conditions offered by AT&T is a promise to observe "network neutrality" principles, an offer of $19.95 per month stand-alone...

(AP) The Federal Communications Commission has unanimously approved AT&T's takeover of BellSouth.

DOJ Approves AT&T-BellSouth Merger Plan; FCC Members Copps and Adelstein Criticize Move WASHINGTON (AP) -- AT&T's $78.5 billion buyout of BellSouth Corp. won Justice Department approval Wednesday, a decision that sets the stage for further reuniting modernized parts of the old Ma Bell phone monopoly broken up by the government in 1984. The Justice Department approved the deal without conditions, which leaves the Federal Communications Commission as the final hurdle to the merger creating the nation's biggest provider of phone, wireless and broadband Internet services. The decision was immediately criticized by the FCC's two Democratic members -- Jonathan S. Adelstein...

Leslie Cauley, the USA Today reporter who last week “broke” the news that three major U.S. telecommunications companies were assisting the National Security Agency in building a database to more easily track any communications by potential terrorists, is listed as a donor to former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt... A search found a listing for "writer and journalist" Leslie Cauley, indicating she gave $2,000 to Gephardt on June 30, 2003, when Gephardt was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. And that seems not to be her only tie to Democratic politics ... Cauley's link to a Democratic campaign seems likely...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- BellSouth Corp. (BLS) has sent a letter to USA Today and the newspaper's parent company, Gannett Co. (GCI) , demanding the retraction of a story which said the phone company shared its customers calling records with a federal spy agency, according to a Thursday report in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal. The letter demanded that the newspaper retract the "faults and unsubstantiated statements" in the May 11 article, which said BellSouth and some of its rivals shared bulk calling data with the National Security Agency, the Journal said. The story ignited a firestorm...

BellSouth Corp. said Monday its "thorough review" found no indication it gave telephone records to the National Security Agency as part of a federal anti-terrorism surveillance program. A report last week by USA Today identified BellSouth, along with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., as companies that had complied with an NSA request to turn over millions of customer phone records after the 2001 terror attacks. "Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA," the Atlanta-based regional Bell said in a statement. BellSouth...

ATLANTA, May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The following statement regarding media reports about U.S. governmental agency data collection may be attributed to BellSouth Corporation (NYSE: BLS): There has been much speculation in the last several days about the role that BellSouth may have played in efforts by the National Security Agency (NSA) and other governmental agencies to keep our nation safe. As a result of media reports that BellSouth provided massive amounts of customer calling information under a contract with the NSA, the Company conducted an internal review to determine the facts. Based on our review to date, we have...

March 20, 2006 issue - Never count out a brand. Not long ago the once great AT&T name was headed for the boneyard, as was its former chairman's daring strategy of milking a cash-cow business for money to bet on fast-growth telecom. Now, as we see from last week's $90 billion telecom deal, both the AT&T name and its strategy are back. Big time. Who'da thunk it? When SBC Communications made a deal last winter to buy the shrunken remnants of faded blue-chip AT&T, it said it would eliminate the brand. Both AT&T Wireless and AT&T Broadband had previously been...

Tom Evslin's Fractals of Change has posted an explosive piece about the way AT&T is handling their exclusive contract to install payphones in Iraq and how much they're charging American soldiers to call home. Would you believe twenty one cents per minute?? As Tom points out with the going wholesale cost of voice minutes under a penny per minute, this seems very, very wrong. Tom also notes that the total amount of money we're talking about here is a drop in the bucket for a company like AT&T. It's mind-boggling to me that the execs at AT&T don't realize that...

AT&T is on the rise again. A 20th century industrial icon, the company once known as American Telephone & Telegraph was chopped into pieces in the 1980s and then withered into a bite-size company that was easily swallowed up by one of its offspring last year. A proposed $67 billion deal to acquire BellSouth Corp., perhaps the biggest merger ever in the telecommunications industry, will restore some of AT&T’s lost heft, making it the local phone service provider in 22 states and giving it a workforce of more than 300,000 people. But for all its size the new AT&T is...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- AT&T Inc. announced Sunday that it will buy regional-phone company BellSouth Corp. for $67 billion in stock, consummating a long-rumored deal that would create a gigantic communications provider with tentacles extending deep into the phone, wireless, Internet and even pay-TV markets. The acquisition would also give AT&T sole control of Cingular Wireless, the biggest U.S. wireless operator with more than 54 million customers. AT&T owns 60%, with BellSouth controlling the rest. Under the agreement, AT&T (T : AT&T Inc. News , chart, profile, more Last: 27.99-0.29-1.03%4:00pm 03/03/2006Add to portfolioAnalyst Create alert InsiderDiscussFinancials Sponsored by: T27.99, -0.29,...

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - news) on Sunday agreed to acquire BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS - news) for about $67 billion, to expand its reach into the southeastern United States and acquire the rest of Cingular Wireless it does not already own. BellSouth shareholders will receive 1.325 shares of AT&T common stock for each common share of BellSouth. Based on AT&T's closing stock price on March 3, that equals $37.09 per BellSouth common share, a 17.9-percent premium. The long-awaited deal would give the combined company a national long-distance telephone and data network, residential customers stretching from Florida to California...

Excerpt - AT&T Inc. is nearing the acquisition of BellSouth Corp. for roughly $65 billion, people familiar with the situation said Saturday evening. A deal could be announced as early as Monday, these people said. ~snip~

A senior telecommunications executive said yesterday that Internet service providers should be allowed to strike deals to give certain Web sites or services priority in reaching computer users, a controversial system that would significantly change how the Internet operates. William L. Smith, chief technology officer for Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp., told reporters and analysts that an Internet service provider such as his firm should be able, for example, to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc.

SBC and Verizon both win merger clearance By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington Published: October 31 2005 23:16 | Last updated: October 31 2005 23:16 SBC and Verizon on Monday successfully concluded their campaigns to win regulatory clearance for their two multi-billion dollar telecommunications deals. The Federal Communications Commission approved both companies’ merger plans without onerous conditions. The FCC, which has for months been evenly split between two Democratic and two Republican commissioners because of a Republican vacancy at the agency, voted unanimously to approve SBC’s $16bn takeover or AT&T and Verizon’s $8.5bn takeover of MCI following a weekend of internal...

NEW ORLEANS — Keith Lafonta labored Monday at a squat building on Chef Menteur Highway, picking through a row of BellSouth trucks to see what equipment was worth salvaging as the company faces an unprecedented challenge restoring phone service to storm-battered New Orleans. He wore gloves to guard against a foul dust of dried mud left behind after floodwaters were pumped out. Sweat seeped through his white BellSouth polo shirt as midday temperatures crept toward the upper 90s. "All this was underwater," Lafonta said, sweeping his hand toward a bleak scene of battered vehicles that were flooded by polluted water...

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - SBC Communications Inc. president William Daley has resigned and the company named Forrest Miller, currently corporate planning group president, to replace him. The telecommunications company offered no explanation for the abrupt personnel changes in its brief statement. Miller's title will be Group President-External Affairs and Planning and he will report to SBC chairman and chief executive Edward Whitacre Jr. The group will combine the company's public affairs and planning units ``We appreciate Bill's efforts on behalf of SBC and wish him well,'' Whitacre said. SBC, the nation's No. 2 local-phone company, has been struggling in the...

<p>BellSouth-AT&T Talks Snag as AT&T Wants $26 a Share, People Say Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- BellSouth Corp., the local-phone company that wants to expand in long distance by acquiring AT&T Corp., is balking at the price AT&T has demanded, people familiar with the matter said.</p>

Vonage said Thursday it intends to fight the first-ever decision by a U.S. state to regulate companies that provide Internet-based phone services. Minnesota's Public Utilities Commission unanimously decided two weeks ago that the New Jersey-based voice over IP (VoIP) provider is subject to the rules and regulations that cover traditional phone companies. The state has ordered Vonage to get the proper telephone company business licenses and to immediately pay fees to the state's Department of Administration to support 911 services, according to a representative for the Minnesota PUC. Bill Wilhelm, an attorney for Vonage, called the decision into question Thursday,...

Project Horizon The purpose of Project Horizon is to reduce costs associated with the ongoing maintenance and enhancement of IT applications. In order to accomplish this goal, BellSouth will utilize offshore resources and take advantage of the differential cost savings. BellSouth will accomplish this while having the transition transparent to the customers and applicable Business Units. While utilizing offshore resources, BellSouth will ensure that current service levels are maintained. This cost savings initiative will enable BellSouth to reduce IT expenditures and save an estimated $275 million over a 5-year timeframe (2003-2007.) India was chosen as the initial pilot site for...