Does the proposed SBC - AT&T merger bother anyone else?

[Darknyte7]

This as absolutely ridiculous! A "Baby Bell" buying the original Ma Bell? Are you shitting me??? Where does it stop???

[silverlib]

1. Absolutely!

My understanding is that it is pending "approval." What happened to the law that separated these mega companies to begin with?

[anarchy1999]

2. Ummm--- Welcome back MA BELL. Finally achieved.

It's just too funny for words. Defies belief and then again, not.

[Finding Rawls]

3. The telecommunications industry is chaning fast

There is nothing wrong with this merger. AT&T is falling apart. It's hardly a competitor anymore.

Telecommunications is an industry that is difficult to regulate because the technology is changing so rapidly. If you hold back SBC from merging you could severly hamper their ability to compete in the market. Everything is moving towards wireless technology and the actual infrastructure is becoming less and less important.

This will undoubtedly be allowed.

[Darknyte7]

7. First of all...

AT&T is NOT falling apart. My wife is an attorney too, and she worked on the AT&T-Circular merger this past spring. No, they're not as dominate as they once were, but that was the idea when they spent over 10 years & hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees to force the breakup.

One of my practice areas too is telecommunications law. Thus, I appreciate the pace with which the technologies are improving and converging. Nonetheless, we're quickly walking back from policies that created the environment in the late 80's & early 90's to produce the communications technology breakthroughs that we enjoy today.

I have no doubt that the deal will go through. After all, who's going to stop it. The SEC? The FCC?? The Justice Department???? Right...

[tritsofme]

8. AT&T Wireless that just merged with Cingular was a different

company than the AT&T that may be acquired by SBC.

AT&T Wireless spun off about 5 years ago or so.

AT&T Corporate is in shambles, and I tend to think $16 billion would be too high of a price tag for SBC.

[Darknyte7]

9. You're right...

AT&T did spin off AT&T Wireless a couple of years back. I'd forgotten that in my previous post. Apologies...

[tritsofme]

10. No problem

With all the splits in the past decade or so it is very confusing.

[ronnykmarshall]

21. Cingular is part of SBC.

They were Pacific Bell wireless and changed their name when SBC bought Pac Bell.

[snooper2]

11. AT&T is a worthless...

POS company...

5 years ago they had customer generated revenues of over 50 Billion, now they are down to 18.5 Billion.

The sold off anything that made money, where did that money go? Top Executives pockets. So, Bell wants to get in the long distance business, they should shell out a little more and go after Qwest...but they do everything on the cheap to so let them have AT&T.

I know a little about mergers in the Telecomunications industry, and I would love to be a fly on the wall during their first IT OSS meetings....

Um, hey Bob, those AS400s still in use?
Yeah, we can't seem to get rid of them, hmmm....what to do...

What provisioning systems do you guys use? Well, around 40, let me go through them, we have one for each product....

Funny shit in my mind.....

[anarchy1999]

12. So nice to see you weigh in on this one, Babe!

You rock. Hey everyone else here at DU, this guy knows of what he speaks.

[snooper2]

15. no prob...

It's not like they are the last two companies making widgits and they have the same exact equipment to make said widget...

[anarchy1999]

19. I think first time today, you made me smile. Thanks snooper2.

n/t "widgets".

[Cleita]

4. Well, in the case of MaBell, service was better and cheaper

under the monopoly. I know some people will argue that long distance cost more. It did, but LD is mostly used by corporations and the government military complex. So cheap long distance gives corporations another benefit that the telephone companies pass on to the local consumer, you and I.

[ChicanoPwr]

5. Not a merger a complete buy out.

Next on SBC's list is MCI. So what happened to the anti-trust laws and when Congress end it?

HELLO, ISN'T THIS A MONOPOLY??? BUT THEN AGAIN, THIS IS BUSH WORLD THERE IS NO SUCH THING!!!! :mad:

The next target
The acquisition of AT&T will shift attention to MCI, No. 2 long-distance company, as the next takeover target, analysts told Reuters news service.

"It would definitely put MCI on the block and it would be acquired quickly by one of the other Bells, Verizon or BellSouth or Qwest,'' said Kagan.

A takeover of the two largest long-distance carriers has been seen by some industry executives as inevitable as the Baby Bells try to expand their mix of services. But the timing seems premature, analysts said.

SBC would be smarter to focus on its faster-growing wireless and data services than taking on the challenge of the difficult integration of AT&T, reducing its overall revenue growth, and risking exposure to the shrinking corporate long-distance market, Lehman Brothers analyst Blake Bath said in a research report.

[kysrsoze]

17. Sorry, but you don't quite have it right.

SBC has no reason to buy MCI if they get AT&T. What they are going after is AT&T's backbone and their high-end business data services, something which SBC lacks. Buying MCI would be redundant because they have the same product offerings. SBC wouldn't want to deal with all their financial problems anyway, so the discussions with MCI were called off. FWIW, SBC is doing this to compete with Verizon's high-end business data which is doing extremely well compared with SBC.

SBC doesn't need long-distance because they're already selling their own long-distance everywhere they operate. There's very little money in long-distance anymore due to wireless and ridiculously low prices. Bellsouth or another baby bell will likely buy MCI.

[ChicanoPwr]

20. Oh really?

I don't think so. Got it straight off the this link.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P108103.asp?GT1=6065

[TomClash]

6. What's the matter? Don't you love freedom? Don't you love Big Brother?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

13. The saddest thing is...

That Dave Dorman, the imperial CEO of AT&T has spent his tenure driving down the value of the company, in the hopes of making it an attractive takeover target. Now it is.

No, perhaps that is not the saddest thing. Perhaps the saddest thing is that the stockholders never stood up to this most transparent rape of the company.

[Darknyte7]

16. Great point... eom

[elemnopee]

14. Is AT&T unionized?

SBC workers have a good contract, and this could work out good for AT&T workers if the union demands they fall under the SBC collective bargaining agreement.

[tritsofme]

25. Yes it is

I don't know too much about it however.

[ronnykmarshall]

18. Nope!

Bring back MA BELL!!!



"Here at the Phone Company we handle eighty-four billion calls a year. Serving everyone from presidents and kings to scum of the earth. (snort) We realize that every so often you can't get an operator, for no apparent reason your phone goes out of order , or perhaps you get charged for a call you didn't make. We don't care. Watch this just lost Peoria. (snort) You see, this phone system consists of a multibillion-dollar matrix of space-age technology that is so sophisticated, even we can't handle it. But that's your problem, isn't it ? Next time you complain about your phone service, why don't you try using two Dixie cups with a string. We don't care. We don't have to. (snort) We're the Phone Company!" --

[Spacejet]

22. Get VOIP

nt

[Orsino]

23. "The modern telecommunications marketplace...

...has rendered quaint many anti-trust concerns."

[Darknyte7]

24. Who is this quote attributable to? eom

[Orsino]

26. Alberto Gonzales...

...were it not fictitious.