On a slow day a few years ago I was looking at some US West (now
> Qwest) tariffs at the Oregon PUC. Most of the documents had wording
> that went something like "...Pacifc Northwest Bell, dba US West...",
> with dba standing for "doing business as". I don't know this for
> sure, but I'm guessing changing the name of a big company might be
> really expensive but using another name for the business might be as
> easy as filing a form with a state's corporation commission. This
> same syndrome afflicts many railroads; One road buys another, paints
> new logos all over everything but retains the old name on deeds to
> properties, operating authorities and the like. In addition to being
> expensive this tactic might shield the new owner from misdeeds of the
> former company. Who knows?
Not just a railroad and telecom issue, either.
Look how many companies Clear Channel bought, and a ton of them still have the original licensee's name on the license, like Clear Channel Victor Valley, which owns most of our local radio outlets that are still licensed to Capstar ... Capstar sold out to Clear Channel long before I moved here.
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