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Cingular agrees to buy AT&T Wireless (Ma Bell coming back alert)
MSNBC ^
| February 17, 2004
| Associated Press
Posted on 02/17/2004 1:53:15 PM PST by El Conservador
ATLANTA - Cingular Wireless won the bidding war to acquire AT&T Wireless Services for nearly $41 billion in cash, a deal that would create the nations largest cell phone company.
The merger between the second and third largest U.S. wireless companies was announced Tuesday as Britains Vodafone Group PLC withdrew from the contest after four days of rising bids.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: att; attwireless; babybells; cingular; mabell; merger
Ma Bell is coming back...
To: El Conservador
Naaah, when the orginal baby bells started buying each other up everyone worried too. Nothing has really come of it.
I do however find it interesting that two baby bell offshoots were competing for AT&T wireless though.
2
posted on
02/17/2004 1:58:11 PM PST
by
Bikers4Bush
(Flood waters rising, heading for more conservative ground. Write in Tancredo in 04'!)
To: Bikers4Bush
This is the right thing.
Separately they could never build out a GSM network in the U.S. Hopefully now their GSM coverage will not be a joke and Verizon will not be the only usable network.
I use Verizon because it works. I wish I could use a GSM network so I could use my phone in Europe, too.
3
posted on
02/17/2004 2:10:28 PM PST
by
eno_
(Freedom Lite - it's almost worth defending)
To: El Conservador
Let's hope so. The babybells suck, a large phone network works better than a bunch of medium networks. And maybe we can end the long distance wars and get rid of a bunch of really annoying commercials.
4
posted on
02/17/2004 2:12:41 PM PST
by
discostu
(but this one has 11)
To: El Conservador
Terrific... the two least reliable cell phone companies in America merge. With their track records, can we really expect the end result to be better?
5
posted on
02/17/2004 2:14:04 PM PST
by
kevkrom
(Ask your Congresscritter about his or her stance on HR 25 -- the NRST)
To: El Conservador
"Ma Bell is coming back..."
Not really. The key to the breakup of Ma Bell was the forced separation of the long distance lines (which AT&T kept) from the local lines (which the Baby Bells got). That's why consolidation of the Baby Bells also doesn't add up to a resurrection of the bad old AT&T.
Now, if a Baby Bell tried to buy AT&T's long distance unit, then you'd have a resurrection.
Sorry to be pedantic.
6
posted on
02/17/2004 2:37:03 PM PST
by
mondonico
(Peace through Superior Firepower)
To: mondonico; El Conservador
I just happened to find this two year old thread interesting as SBC did in fact buy AT&T, and now the retooled AT&T is preparing to buy BellSouth and in doing so take complete control of Cingular, and rename it AT&T Wireless.
Funny how things work out...
7
posted on
03/06/2006 1:09:30 AM PST
by
RWR8189
(George Allen for President)
To: RWR8189
Yes it is. This IS the resurrection. Weirdly, although SBC bought AT&T, Verizon is the one moving into AT&T's corporate headquarters in Basking Ridge NJ.
8
posted on
03/07/2006 8:18:29 PM PST
by
mondonico
(Peace through Superior Firepower)
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