SBC Might Buy AT&T

ChipGuy writes "SBC is in talks to buy AT&T according to Wall Street Journal and New York Times, both reporting price tag to be between $15-and-$16 billion. The news comes close on heels of SBC reported weaker earnings and 7000 job cuts. The New York Times says talks are fluid and sensitive. Wall Street Journal says, "a major acquisition would speak to SBC Chief Executive Edward Whitacre Jr.'s aim of turning the company into a national brand and his desire to do at least one final deal before he retires." Om Malik writes that "buying AT&T will make sense for anyone, and not just SBC. Why? Because AT&T still is the only game in the enterprise markets. MCI is hurting and Sprint clearly wants to focus on wireless. That leaves AT&T in a pretty good shape.""

Comments

Re:Breaking up...

[Laterite]

" That would be the case, if long-distance and land lines were the monopoly that they once were... but since AT&T sold off their wireless portion..." SBC runs a joint venture with BellSouth called Cingular Wireless...which just bought At&T Wireless, which was spun off from AT&T...which was busted up 20 years ago to form SBC, BellSouth, etc. etc. yadda yadda... -Mark

Why?

[grasshoppa]

Why would you, as SBC, be looking to put out more cash, if you just LOST cash last reporting period?

This must be that business sense i hear so much about.

Not only that, but as an AT&T customer, I'd be scared. SBC is, with the possible exception of CompUSA, the worst company I have to deal with day in and day out. Their tech support is a fucking joke, and their products and services are medocre at best.

Aside from that, do these mega-mergers ever actually, you know, work? Timewarner-AOL, HP Compaq?

Re:Why?

[FictionPimp]

Here's a treat for you from SBC customer service.

I have comcast cable and I use vonage for phone service. Comcast just raised their rates, and I decided that I dont want to pay that much anymore and my friends dsl speeds are about the same for much less. So I call SBC and click though all the menu's to get to sales. I ask about dsl. She asks my address, my name and my phone number. I give her all 3. She informs me that my number is not under their service. I tell her that I use voice over IP, but I would be willing to get their local phone service if I can get DSL. She said they can't check to see if I can get dsl without me first getting phone service!

So we go round and round about this. I ask what the cheaps phone service I can get is, and we go round and round about that. Can't not choose a long distance carrier, you are charged more for not picking a package deal thing, etc. Finally, I decide you can't get a phone for less then 40.00 a month, and on top of that, because I've never been a customer they want a 150.00 deposit.

So I said screw it. I just canceled my expanded cable package and kept basic cable and cable internet. I'll use BT to get the shows I miss.

Re:Perspective

[xs650]

"Before we get into it about rebuilding the hated Ma Bell of yesteryear, keep this in perspective. SBC is right now one of the four remaining RBOCs, or Baby Bells, formed from the divestiture of AT&T (the original national phone monopoly) in 1984."

SBC contains more than one Baby Bell. It already has at least SW Bell, Pacific Telephone and Bell of Nevada in it's belly.