>> Last year, SBC, now AT&T, bought Bellsouth and has been merging it
>> into the new AT&T. This means that Cingular is now entirely owned by
>> the new AT&T. Having just finished the expensive process of
>> re-rebranding all of the former ATTWS properties from AT&T to
>> Cingular, now they are starting the even more expensive process of
>> re-re-rebranding Cingular back to AT&T.
>> Confused yet?
> It is not particularly unusual for an acquiring company to adopt the
> name of the company it is acquiring. NationsBank (formerly NCNB
> National Bank, earlier North Carolina National Bank) acquired Bank of
> America and prompty changed its name to Bank of America. Which is why
> Bank of America now has its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
> Another example is the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, which
> bought the Southern Pacific Company and changed its name to Southern
> Pacific. Which is why Southern Pacific's headquarters were in Denver
> when SP (one-time parent of Sprint) was sold to Union Pacific.
Oh you had to br> PAT: Please do NOT display my email address!
Steven Sobol wrote:
>> Cingular has never been an independent company. It was formed by a
>> joint venture of SBC and BellSouth. Both companies have been bought
>> by AT&T, and Cingular's been re-branded. Again.
> Patrick Towns>> Although Cingular was never an independent company, I think its
>> roots were in the old Southwestern Bell Mobility in the 1980's.
> Cingular was formed in 2000 by the joint venture of SBC Mobility
> and BellSouth Mobility. It has its roots in BOTH SBC (or Southwestern
> Bell), and BellSouth, as well as having taken over licenses of other
> cellcos over the years, such as much of the "old" AT&T Wireless.
The other amusing things is that Verizon now owns the Brooks Fiber facilities. Well, after MCI sucked up Brooks, they then were sucked up by Verizon.
And MCI is really interesting since it was they who started the ball rolling with regard to the anti-trust suits against AT&T back in the
1970's.