AT&T

AT&T Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company, the second largest provider of mobile telephone services, and the largest provider of fixed telephone services in the United States through AT&T Communications. Since June 14, 2018, it is also the parent company of mass media conglomerate WarnerMedia, making it the world's largest media and entertainment cmpany in terms of revenue.
AT&T began its history as Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, a subsidiary of the Bell Telephone Company, founded by Alexander Graham Bell in 1880. The Bell Telephone Company evolved into American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885, which later rebranded as AT&T Corporation. The 1982 United States v. AT&T antitrust lawsuit resulted in the divestiture of AT&T Corporation's ("Ma Bell") subsidiaries or Regional Bell Operating Companies ("Baby Bells"), resulting in several independent companies including Southwestern Bell Corporation; the latter changed its name to SBC Communications Inc. in 1995. In 2005, SBC purchased its former parent AT&T Corporation and took on its branding, with the merged entity naming itself AT&T Inc. and using its iconic logo and stock-trading symbol. In 2006, AT&T Inc. acquired BellSouth, the last independent Baby Bell company, making their formerly joint venture Cingular Wireless (which had acquired AT&T Wireless in 2004) wholly owned and rebranding it as AT&T Mobility.
The current AT&T reconstitutes much of the former Bell System, and includes ten of the original 22 Bell Operating Companies along with the original long distance division.
==History==
===Origin and growth (1882–1981)===
AT&T can trace its origin back to the original Bell Telephone Company founded by Alexander Graham Bell after his patenting of the telephone. One of that company's subsidiaries was American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), established in 1885, which acquired the Bell Company on December 31, 1899, for legal reasons, leaving AT&T as the main company. AT&T established a network of subsidiaries in the United States and Canada that held a government-authorized phone service monopoly, formalized with the Kingsbury Commitment, throughout most of the twentieth century. This monopoly was known as the Bell System, and during this period, AT&T was also known by the nickname Ma Bell. For periods of time, the former AT&T was the world's largest phone company.
===Breakup and reformation (1982–2004)===
In 1982, U.S. regulators broke up the AT&T monopoly, requiring AT&T to divest its regional subsidiaries and turning them each into individual companies. These new companies were known as Regional Bell Operating Companies, or more informally, Baby Bells. AT&T continued to operate long distance services, but as a result of this breakup, faced competition from new competitors such as MCI and Sprint.
Southwestern Bell was one of the companies created by the breakup of AT&T Corp. The architect of divestiture for Southwestern Bell was Robert G. Pope. The company soon started a series of acquisitions. This includes the 1987 acquisition of Metromedia mobile business and the acquisition of several cable companies in the early 1990s. In the later half of the 1990s, the company acquired several other telecommunications companies, including some Baby Bells, while selling its cable business. During this time, the company changed its name to SBC Communications. By 1998, the company was in the top 15 of the Fortune 500, and by 1999 the company was part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (lasting through 2015).
===Purchase of former parent and acquisitions (2005–2014)===
In 2005, SBC purchased AT&T for $16 billion. After this purchase, SBC adopted the better-known AT&T name and brand, with the original AT&T Corp. still existing as the long-distance landline subsidiary of the merged company. The current AT&T claims the original AT&T Corp.'s history (dating to 1885) as its own, though its corporate structure only dates from 1983. It also retains SBC's pre-2005 stock price history, and all regulatory filings prior to 2005 are for Southwestern Bell/SBC, not AT&T Corp.
In September 2013, AT&T Inc. announced it would expand into Latin America through a collaboration with América Móvil. In December 2013, AT&T announced plans to sell its Connecticut wireline operations to Stamford-based Frontier Communications.
===Recent developments (2014–present)===
AT&T purchased the Mexican carrier Iusacell in late 2014, and two months later purchased the Mexican wireless business of NII Holdings, merging the two companies to create AT&T Mexico.
In July 2015, AT&T purchased DirecTV for $48.5 billion, or $67.1 billion including assumed debt, subject to certain conditions. AT&T subsequently announced plans to converge its existing U-verse home internet and IPTV brands with DirecTV, to create AT&T Entertainment.
In an effort to increase its media holdings, on October 22, 2016, AT&T announced a deal to buy Time Warner for $108.7 billion.
AT&T also owned approximately a 2% stake in Canadian-domiciled entertainment company Lionsgate.
On July 13, 2017, it was reported that AT&T would introduce a cloud-based DVR streaming service as part of its effort to create a unified platform across DirecTV and its DirecTV Now streaming service, with U-verse to be added soon. In October 2018, it was announced that the service Is set to launch in 2019
On September 12, 2017, it was reported that AT&T planned to launch a new cable TV-like service for delivery over-the-top over its own or a competitor's broadband network sometime next year.
On November 20, 2017, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim filed a lawsuit for the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division to block the merger with Time Warner, saying it "will harm competition, result in higher bills for consumers and less innovation." In order for AT&T to fully acquire Time Warner, the Department of Justice stated that the company must divest either DirecTV or Turner Broadcasting System.
As of 2017, AT&T is the world's largest telecommunications company. AT&T is also the second largest provider of mobile telephone services and the largest provider of fixed telephone services in the United States.
On March 7, 2018, the company prepared to sell a minority stake of DirecTV Latin America through an IPO, creating a new holding company for those assets named Vrio Corp. However, on April 18, 2018, just a day before the public debut of Vrio, AT&T canceled the IPO due to market conditions.
On June 12, 2018, AT&T was given permission by U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon to go ahead with its $85 billion deal for Time Warner. The DOJ had attempted to stop the merger fearing it would harm competition. The merger closed two days after, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary and division of AT&T with a new name, WarnerMedia, announced the next day.
Three months after completing the acquisition and a year after reorganising into four units, AT&T made it biggest move since 1984, reclassifying itself into a pure holding conglomerate and merging it RSNs, stakes in GSN, and Other, AT&T Audience into WarnerMedia's Turner, renaming DIRECTV Latin America to Vrio which is now part of the renamed AT&T Latin America (formerly AT&T International), moving wireline into Entertainment group, and renaming Consumer Mobility to simply Mobiliity.
==Landline operating companies==
Of the eight companies that were part of the Breakup of the Bell System, these five are a part of the current AT&T:
* Ameritech, acquired by SBC in 1999
* AT&T Corp., acquired by SBC in 2005
* BellSouth, acquired by AT&T in 2006
* Pacific Telesis, acquired by SBC in 1997
* Southwestern Bell, rebranded as SBC Communications in 1995, acquired AT&T Corporation and rebranded as AT&T Inc. in 2005
===Chart of Baby Bells===
===Former operating companies===
===Future of rural landlines===
==Corporate structure==
AT&T Inc. has retained the holding companies it has acquired over the years resulting in the following corporate structure:
* AT&T Inc., publicly traded holding company
**AT&T Arkansas, AT&T Kansas, AT&T Missouri, AT&T Oklahoma, AT&T Southwest, AT&T Texas
** AT&T Teleholdings Inc, AT&T East, AT&T Midwest, AT&T West
*** AT&T Illinois
*** AT&T Indiana
*** AT&T Michigan
*** AT&T Ohio
*** AT&T Wisconsin
** AT&T California
*** AT&T Nevada
** AT&T Corporation (acquired in 2005)
*** AT&T Alaska
** AT&T South
*** AT&T Alabama, AT&T Florida, AT&T Georgia, AT&T Louisiana, AT&T Kentucky, AT&T Mississippi, AT&T North Carolina, AT&T South Carolina, AT&T Southeast, AT&T Tennessee
**AT&T Communications
***AT&T Mobility
***Cricket Wireless
***DirecTV
***AlienVault
**WarnerMedia
***HBO
***Turner Broadcasting System
***Warner Bros.
***Otter Media
**AT&T Latin America
***AT&T Mexico
***Vrio
**Xandr
***AppNexus
***AT&T AdWorks
==Political involvement==
==Historical financial performance==
==Criticism and controversies==
==Naming rights and sponsorships==
=== Buildings ===
*Whitacre Tower (One AT&T Plaza) – Corporate Headquarters, Dallas, Texas
*AT&T 220 Building – building in Indianapolis, Indiana
* AT&T Building – building in Detroit, Michigan
* AT&T Building – building in Indianapolis, Indiana
* AT&T Building – building in Kingman, Arizona
* AT&T Building – (aka "The Batman Building") in Nashville, Tennessee
* AT&T Building – building in Omaha, Nebraska
* AT&T Building Addition – building in Detroit, Michigan
* AT&T Building – building in San Diego
* AT&T Center – building in Los Angeles
* AT&T Center – building in St. Louis, Missouri
* AT&T Center – building in San Antonio, Texas
* AT&T City Center – building in Birmingham, Alabama
* AT&T Corporate Center – building in Chicago, Illinois
* AT&T Huron Road Building – building in Cleveland, Ohio
* AT&T Lenox Park Campus – AT&T Mobility Headquarters in DeKalb County just outside Atlanta, Georgia
* AT&T Midtown Center – building in Atlanta, Georgia
* AT&T Switching Center – building in Los Angeles
* AT&T Switching Center – building in Oakland, California
* AT&T Switching Center – building in San Francisco
* AT&T Tower - building in Minneapolis, MN
* AT&T Building - building in (Meriden), CT
* AT&T Entertainment Group HQ - DirecTV corporate campus in El Segundo, California
=== Venues ===
thumb|AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas
* AT&T Center – San Antonio, Texas (formerly SBC Center)
* AT&T Field – Chattanooga, Tennessee (formerly BellSouth Park)
* AT&T Park – San Francisco, California (formerly Pacific Bell Park, SBC Park)
* AT&T Plaza – Chicago, Illinois (public space that hosts the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park)
* AT&T Plaza – Dallas, Texas (plaza in front of the American Airlines Center at Victory Park)
* AT&T Performing Arts Center – Dallas, Texas
* AT&T Stadium – Arlington, Texas (formerly Dallas Cowboys Stadium)
* Jones AT&T Stadium – Lubbock, Texas (formerly Clifford B. and Audrey Jones Stadium, Jones SBC Stadium)
* TPC San Antonio – San Antonio, Texas (AT&T Oaks Course & AT&T Canyons Course)
* War Memorial Stadium, AT&T Field - Little Rock, Arkansas
=== Sponsorships ===
* AT&T Byron Nelson - Irving, Texas (golf)
* AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic (formerly Mobil Cotton Bowl Classic, Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl Classic, SBC Cotton Bowl Classic) – played in Arlington, Texas, at AT&T Stadium (football)
* AT&T National – Washington, D.C. (golf)
* AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (golf)
* AT&T Red River Rivalry – Dallas, Texas (formerly Red River Shootout, SBC Red River Rivalry) (football)
* Major League Soccer and the United States Soccer Federation, including the U.S. men's and U.S. women's national teams and the Major League Soccer All-Star Game from 2009
* Mexico national football team
* United States Olympic team
* National Collegiate Athletic Association (Corporate Champion)
* AT&T American Cup, artistic gymnastics competition. Sponsored by AT&T since 2011.
* Red Bull Racing (Formula 1 racing team), technical support and sponsorship, since 2011.
=== Miscellaneous ===
* AT&T (SEPTA station) – Public Transportation Station in Philadelphia, PA
==See also==
* List of public corporations by market capitalization
* List of largest companies by revenue
* List of United States telephone companies
* List of United States wireless communications service providers
* List of telephone operating companies
* List of Internet exchange points
* Lists of public utilities
* Bell System
* Bell System Divestiture
* Communications Assistance For Law Enforcement Act
* Hepting v. AT&T
* Modification of Final Judgment
* NSA warrantless surveillance
* United States v. AT&T
==External links==
* Official website
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