AT&T

This article is about the holding company known as AT&T since 2005. For the American Telephone and Telegraph Company founded in 1886, see AT&T Corporation. For other uses, see AT&T (disambiguation).

AT&T Inc.
Formerly
  • Southwestern Bell Corporation (1983–1995)
  • SBC Communications Inc.[1] (1995–2005)
Company typePublic
ISINUS00206R1023
Industry
Predecessors
Founded
  • October 5, 1983 (1983-10-05) (as Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC))[2]
  • November 18, 2005 (2005-11-18) (renamed as AT&T Inc.)
HeadquartersWhitacre Tower,
Dallas, Texas
,
United States
Area served
United States
Key people
  • William Kennard (chairman)
  • John Stankey (CEO)
Products
Revenue US$122.3 billion (2024)
US$19.05 billion (2024)
US$12.25 billion (2024)
Total assets US$394.8 billion (2024)
Total equity US$118.2 billion (2024)
Number of employees
140,990 (2024)
Divisions
  • AT&T Communications
  • AT&T Latin America
SubsidiariesCricket Wireless
ASN
Websiteatt.com
Footnotes / references
Financials as of fiscal year ended December 31, 2024.
References:[3]

AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas.[4] It is the world's third largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest wireless carrier in the United States behind T-Mobile and Verizon.[5] As of 2023, AT&T was ranked 32nd on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations, with revenues of $122.4 billion.[3]

The modern company claims the history of the original AT&T founded in 1885 and all relevant history is found on the company's website. The company to bear the AT&T name began as a merger of the SBC Corporation (an original Baby Bell) and AT&T Corporation (Ma Bell). SBC began its history as the American District Telegraph Company, formed in St. Louis in 1878.[6] After expanding services to Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas through a series of mergers, it became the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1920.[7] Southwestern Bell was a subsidiary of the original American Telephone & Telegraph Company, itself founded in 1885 as a subsidiary of the original Bell Telephone Company founded by Alexander Graham Bell in 1877.[8][9][10] In 1899, AT&T became the parent company after the American Bell Telephone Company sold its assets to its subsidiary.[11] During most of the 20th century, AT&T had a near monopoly on phone service in the United States through its Bell System of local operating companies. This led to AT&T's common nickname of "Ma Bell". The company was formally rebranded as AT&T Corporation in 1994.[12]

The 1982 Modification of Final Judgment concluded the 1949 anti-trust lawsuit United States vs. Western Electric Company and American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and resulted in the breakup of the Bell System, in which AT&T divested ownership of its local operating subsidiaries.[13] The regional operating companies were reorganized in seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), commonly called "Baby Bells", including Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC).[13] The latter changed its name to SBC Communications Inc. in 1995.[14] SBC acquired fellow Baby Bells Pacific Telesis in 1997 and Ameritech in 1999.[15]

In 2005, SBC purchased its former parent AT&T Corp. and took on the latter's branding, history, and stock trading symbol, as well as a version of its iconic logo. The merged entity, naming itself AT&T Inc., launched on December 30, 2005.[16] The newly merged and renamed AT&T Inc. acquired BellSouth Corporation in 2006, the last independent Baby Bell, making the two companies' joint venture Cingular Wireless (which had itself acquired AT&T Wireless in 2004) a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. Cingular was then rebranded as AT&T Mobility.

AT&T Inc. also acquired Time Warner in 2016,[17][18] with the proposed merger confirmed on June 12, 2018[19] and the aim of making AT&T Inc. the largest and controlling shareholder of Time Warner, which it then rebranded as WarnerMedia in 2018. The company later withdrew its equity stake in WarnerMedia in 2022 and merged it with Discovery, Inc. to create Warner Bros. Discovery, divesting itself of its media arm.

Today's AT&T reconstitutes most of the former Bell System, and includes four of the seven "Baby Bells" along with the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, including the long-distance division.[15]

  1. ^ Form 8-K Archived January 16, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. Securities and Exchange Commission. October 25, 2004. Accessed January 16, 2019.
  2. ^ Restated Certificate of Incorporation of AT&T Inc. Archived September 4, 2017, at the Wayback Machine Securities and Exchange Commission. April 24, 2009. Accessed September 3, 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Financial and Operational Schedules & Non-GAAP Reconciliatons" (PDF). AT&T Inc. January 27, 2025. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 27, 2025. Retrieved January 27, 2025.
  4. ^ Godinez, Victor; McLemore, David (June 28, 2008). "AT&T moving headquarters to Dallas from San Antonio". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on June 26, 2009.
  5. ^ "Financial and Operational Schedules & Non-GAAP Reconciliatons" (PDF). July 23, 2025. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 23, 2025. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  6. ^ Hast, Adele (1992). International Directory of Company Histories. Detroit: St. James Press. p. 328. ISBN 1-55862-061-3. Southwestern Bell Telephone Company has about 20 predecessor companies. The four largest of these were American District Telegraph Company, formed in St. Louis, Missouri 1878; the Kansas City Telephone Exchange, formed in Kansas City, Missouri in 1879, Southwestern Telegraph & Telephone Company, which began serving Texas and Arkansas in 1881; and Pioneer Telephone & Telegraph Company, which provided telephone service beginning in 1904 in Oklahoma – not then a state, but known as Indian Territory – and in parts of Kansas.
  7. ^ Hast, Adele (1992). International Directory of Company Histories. Detroit: St. James Press. p. 328. ISBN 1-55862-061-3. In 1917, the four companies began moving toward a more formal merge, with the Missouri & Kansas Telephone Company – the new name of the Kansas City Telephone Exchange – acquiring Bell Telephone Company of Missouri, successor to American District Telegraph. The resulting company was named Southwestern Bell Telephone Company (Missouri). In 1920 this company bought Southwestern Telephone & Telegraph and Southwestern Bell Telephone Company (Oklahoma), the successor to Pioneer Telephone & Telegraph, establishing the new Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, which was a subsidiary of AT&T.
  8. ^ Danielian, N.R. (1939). A.T.&T. The Story of Industrial Conquest. New York: Vanguard Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780405060380. After the success of Bell's experiments, which resulted in the basic Bell patents of 1876 and 1877, a new company was organized for the purpose of commercial exploitation. The Bell Telephone Company, a Massachusetts voluntary association, was formed on July 9, 1877, with Gardiner G. Hubbard as trustee. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  9. ^ Danielian, N.R. (1939). A.T.&T. The Story of Industrial Conquest. New York: Vanguard Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780405060380. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company was, therefore, incorporated in New York in 1885, as a subsidiary of American Bell Telephone Company, to operate long-distance telephone lines...In 1899, American Bell sold all of its assets to its subsidiary, AT&T...As a result of this transaction, AT&T emerged as the parent company in the Bell System, assuming the holding-company functions previously exercised by American Bell Telephone Company. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  10. ^ Danielian, N.R. (1939). A.T.&T. The Story of Industrial Conquest. New York: Vanguard Press. pp. 11–12. ISBN 9780405060380. With increasing demands for telephones, the financial needs of the Bell System were expanding. To meet these needs, a new corporation, the American Bell Telephone Company, was created by a special act of the Massachusetts legislature... The American Telephone and Telegraph Company was, therefore, incorporated in New York in 1885, as a subsidiary of American Bell Telephone Company, to operate long-distance telephone lines, and Vail became its first president. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  11. ^ Danielian, N.R. (1939). A.T.&T. The Story of Industrial Conquest. New York: Vanguard Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780405060380. In 1899, American Bell sold all of its assets (except A.T.&T. stock) to its subsidiary, A.T.&T. It then offered to its stockholders two shares of the A.T.&T. stock which hit held, in exchange for one share of American Bell stock. As a result of this transaction, A.T.&T. emerged as the parent company in the Bell System, assuming the holding-company functions previously exercised by American Bell Telephone Company. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  12. ^ "DIGEST". The Washington Post. March 2, 1994. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2021. AT&T is asking shareholders to change its official name from American Telephone & Telegraph Co. to AT&T Corp. at the annual meeting April 20 in Atlanta.
  13. ^ a b "THE CHALLENGE OF DIVESTITURE". The New York Times. October 25, 1983. Archived from the original on May 24, 2015. Retrieved March 23, 2021. The 7 Holding Companies. The seven regional holding companies that will result from the breakup of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company are sketched here, with a brief outline of their potential strengths and weaknesses.
  14. ^ "SBC drops Southwestern Bell, other brand names". Kansas City Business Journal. December 10, 2002. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2021. In 1995, the former Bell company took on the SBC Communications name.
  15. ^ a b "How AT&T got busted up and pieced back together". CNN Money. May 20, 2014. Archived from the original on March 12, 2017. Retrieved March 23, 2021. The whirlwind began in 1997, when Southwestern Bell Corp. (SBC) merged with fellow Baby Bell Pacific Telesis. Two years later, SBC bought Ameritech, another Baby Bell. Then, the craziness really started when SBC bought Ma Bell -- its former parent company -- in 2005. The combined companies renamed itself AT&T. A year later, the new AT&T bought BellSouth, yet another Baby Bell. The new AT&T also bought Cingular Wireless in 2006 -- a company jointly run by Baby Bells SBC and BellSouth that had bought the old AT&T Wireless in 2004. Cingular then changed its name to AT&T Mobility. Got all that? The merger history of these five Baby Bells is dizzying and better explained visually.
  16. ^ "SBC wraps up acquisition of AT&T". Chicago Tribune. November 19, 2005. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2021. SBC will unveil a new AT&T logo Monday as it outlines plans for changing the name of the merged company...The combined company will adopt AT&T's stock symbol, T, on the New York Stock Exchange beginning Dec. 1.
  17. ^ Hagey, Keach; Sharma, Amol; Cimilluca, Dana; Gryta, Thomas (October 22, 2016). "AT&T Is in Advanced Talks to Acquire Time Warner". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on October 22, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2019.
  18. ^ Littleton, Cynthia (October 22, 2016). "AT&T Sets $85.4 Billion Time Warner Deal, CEOs Talks 'Unique' Potential of Combination". Variety. Archived from the original on October 23, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  19. ^ Gold, Hadas. "Judge approves $85 billion AT&T-Time Warner deal". CNNMoney. Archived from the original on July 11, 2018. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
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