BellSouth-AT&T Talks Snag as AT&T Wants $26 a Share,

Bloomberg ^ | 08/29/03 | BG

[Pikamax]

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.

[Pikamax]

I never knew Bellsouth was big enough to even think of buying AT&T

[agitator]

I'd like to know why the recombination of a Baby Bell with its former parent company is even a subject for discussion.

[Pro-Bush]

AT&T is basically just a Long Distance company that is trying to reinvent itself. In 1996, AT&T had a trivestiture and spun off their hardware division (Lucent Technologies), & ATM machine & banking division became(NCR), & AT&T became a services company, with eroding market share in the Long Distance Market. AT&T wireless spun off in 2001, and AT&T broadband (formally TCI & MediaOne) was acquired by Comcast in 2002. Leaving them with revenues from Long Distance. They are making an attempt to penatrate the DSL and Local telephone service, due to deregulation, but these markets are already saturated. Bad news for AT&T unless they change their business plan.

[Paleo Conservative]

I never knew Bellsouth was big enough to even think of buying AT&T

Talk about Jonah swallowing the whale!

[Moonman62]

I never knew Bellsouth was big enough to even think of buying AT&T

Bellsouth has well over twice the market cap of AT&T. Long distance has been a terrible business, and AT&T never seemed to know what to do with itself after the split up.

[Bogey78O]

The messed up part is the baby bells made a horrible deal that is costing them millions in order to get long distance. UNE-P is eating them slowly in some markets. And they agreed to it in exchange for long distance...

[Moonman62]

At least the federal government is involved, so we can all rest easy. </sarcasm>