AT&T - The Rise and Fall...And Rise Again

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AT&T was the largest company in the world until they were broken up and reduced to a fraction of their former size. Yet today, they're back to being one of the largest companies in the world...sort of. This video talks all about it.
AT&T - How It Started: • AT&T - How It Started
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[@regiets1]

What I learned: AT&T bought AT&T to become AT&T.

[@Boom12]

Amen!

[@EGRJ]

"I used the stones to destroy the stones."

[@ranferiantonio5471]

EGRJ lmao

[@fgstech4857]

Right 😓😓😓😂😂😂

[@Lalo_thr]

lol basically

[@AndrewBarsky]

U.S. Government: “You guys are much too big, you gotta split up.” AT&T: “Ok” AT&T: Let’s split up and then merge again in a complicated fashion when nobody is looking.

[@LermaBean]

#ThanksAjitPai 🤦‍♂️

[@sor3999]

AT&T-1000

[@kaibaCorpHQ]

Ya right, now they have the best of both worlds, before the break up they couldn't get into other markets, so they just had to wait a slow 30 years to do that after slowly merging together. I honestly doubt that was their whole plan all along, but it was inevitable when the government is so bipolar on enforcing trust laws.

[@iraqilemonade]

They'll never get Verizon back. That'd make it complete.

[@kaibaCorpHQ]

@@iraqilemonade Honestly that part of the company can burn in hell; the worst customer service I've ever experienced lol.

[@kherossilverlight8400]

The story of AT&T is like a fanfiction where the Roman Empire actually managed to get restored.

[@kevandre]

Man I recall the Cingular stuff very clearly. It was interesting to watch all the AT&T signs and stores become Cingular signs and stores, and then, seemingly months later, they all turned back to AT&T. It was very odd

[@joshdznyc]

I remember seeing flip phones saying either AT&T Wireless or Cingular around New York in 2004. Cingular became AT&T in 2007

[@natekidren]

As a kid I remember seeing my local AT&T Wireless store across our mall turn into Cingular Wireless, then turn into Alltel, which later became Verizon after they bought the majority of Alltel in 2008 which included my area (grew up in Oklahoma where this was the case). That building had the Verizon name the longest out of all those to my knowledge, as far as I know, Verizon closed that location as of 2021 (it was still open in 2019).

[@uss_04]

AT&T. So big they get sequential videos

[@TiberianFiend]

They're so big, their ticker symbol is one letter: T for telephone.

[@stainedglassskies]

ready for the "AT&T: Bigger Than You Know" video

[@lostintime8651]

thought it was a repeat

[@Avianca-rr3rf]

Soon Toys R Us

[@ajatathemu]

US fight fire with fire I guess. 😂

[@objective7042]

Former AT&T tech. in a nut shell, AT&T (SBC) is transforming from a landline telephone company to an entertainment and internet service provider. As simple as that

[@johniii8147]

Danny Wireless is the biggest part of their business. It was their smartest purchase. The media and internet divisions are struggling. Good chance one or both might be eventually sold or spun off

[@objective7042]

@@johniii8147 That what they're banking on, buying DirecTV so they can offer TV services to areas that are not upgraded to VDSL and Fiber areas (areas that only have less than 10 Mbps services) and DirecTV Now for the cord cutters. But yes, they're doing it very wrong.

[@johniii8147]

Danny Yep the are losing customers in droves for direct tv. I expect they will eventually get rid of it.

[@Kinkajou1015]

@@objective7042 As a former DSL Call Center Tech and a Sales rep, yes, AT&T is doing everything wrong, at least for the consumer. They should have continued to push the U-Verse brand, hard. And instead of reworking DSLAMs into VRADs turning the base DSL (ADSL) into U-Verse with VDSL (which was just as bad), they should have kept pushing for fiber and gigabit delivery to every home. If they don't want to supply 4K video over U-Verse TV, fine, restrict it to DirecTV, even though the fiber lines can handle it fine, and when I was last there they were saying they weren't launching new satellites ever again (which means in the next 15 years, DTV is going to be turning useless unless they change their mind).

[@Kinkajou1015]

@@etekweb Then you have SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon's Project Kuiper... We'll still be reliant on satellites for some time to come because the people in charge think it's better than laying fiber optics in the ground. Then again SpaceX and Amazon aren't terrestrial internet companies, and you've seen how difficult it's been for Google Fiber to expand.

[@Tethmes]

So AT&T made Cingular made AT&T. AT&T is it's own Grandaddy. Sounds like the plot to a low budget time travel porno.

[@patientallison]

I'm pretty sure it was a Futurama episode

[@cllewis1]

@@patientallison Thing is, Cingular was made up of BellSouth Mobility and SBC (which were a result of the Baby Bells). When Bellsouth and SBC merged and bought AT&T, they killed the Cingular name and called the new company AT&T Wireless. Edit: I should have waited before commenting.

[@JL-sm6cg]

I had Cingular when it changed to AT&T.

[@Flickstro]

Starring Steve Martin

[@MiamiMike21]

You should see the movie Pre-destination

[@nitsugadot5972]

So basically: AT&T separated into 7 major companies which some later also split. One of these companies had kept the name AT&T and one of the left major companies became big enough to buy AT&T which they used to rename themselves to AT&T. After that the new AT&T started buying other parts of the old AT&T and more.

[@thatonenerd_]

And two of those 7 split companies became their own competitor

[@mattjackson2172]

@@thatonenerd_ AT&T also bought Time Warner in 2018 and renamed it to WarnerMedia.

[@careyconley4690]

In a nutshell, that's basically what happened. When the original AT&T Corp broke up, AT&T Corp spun off its local phone services to all the new companies and kept long distance for itself, a fatal error. Once other companies were allowed to offer long distance services, that put AT&T Corp behind the proverbial 8 ball, because EVERYBODY was selling long distance services, which were AT&T Corp's only phone services. While the companies it spun off grew, A&T Corp shrunk, until what was left of it, was bought by one of its growing spinoffs, SBC. SBC recognized the AT&T name and brand were better than their own, so since they now owned it, they smartly adopted it for themselves, becoming the new AT&T. Cingular was a joint venture between SBC, and its Baby Bell sibling, Bell South. SBC owned 60%, Bell South owned 40%. The original AT&T Wireless started as a company called McCaw Cellular, back in the 80s. When cell phone service was growing, AT&T Corp was late getting into the game, so having not developed their own cellular services, they bought McCaw, and it became the original AT&T Wireless. Eventually, AT&T Wireless was spun off from AT&T Corp into a separate, independent company. AT&T Corp told AT&T Wireless that if they were ever acquired, that the name "AT&T Wireless" would revert to AT&T Corp. AT&T Wireless was eventually purchased by Cingular, and became part of Cingular. Not long after that, SBC bought AT&T Corp and became the new AT&T. They then absorbed sibling Bell South, their partner with Cingular. With the new AT&T now having 100% control of Cingular, they rebranded it to AT&T. As a result of all this: In 2004, AT&T Wireless became Cingular. In 2007, Cingular became AT&T.

[@SomeoneOnTheInternet855]

AT&T is somehow again the biggest but with tough competition of: Verizon, and T-Mobile (Sprint no longer exists)

[@joeruiz9029]

I’m retired from At&t West. I started to work in California for the old “ Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company” back in 1972 and experienced all those changes in the telephone industry. You did a great job in summarizing what we went throughout all those those years. Thanks; job well done.

[@jacksonthorn6304]

Do advanced micro devices (AMD) rise/fall/rise again

[@mix3k818]

Yes! Planning to get a Ryzen and maybe a Navi as well.

[@CLIXZZ]

he can also do amd vs intel this can be a great little computer series

[@ganaraminukshuk0]

It's hard to explain AMD's success without mentioning Intel in some way (security vulnerabilities, Intel's shady practices designed to push AMD into irrelevance, overall delay/failure to innovate). I still agree, though.

[@tudorardelean8073]

Jackson Thorn he needs to do it

[@ganaraminukshuk0]

Also, dat 3900x...

[@shannoncrescent4422]

In case you're curious, growing up in Boston, we pronounced NYNEX as "nine-ex" rather than spelling out the acronym.

[@St0rmcrash]

I can still remember the commercial from the merger "Say Goodbye to NYNEX (voices saying goodbye) and say Hello to Bell Atlantic (voices saying hello). NYNEX is now Bell Atlantic!

[@mstdn]

Omg yes.. I cringed every time he said it. “We’re the one for you New England, New England Telephone, part of the NYNEX family”

[@chinito77]

As a New Yorker, it was pronounced “Ni nex” during our commercial runs.

[@sinenominecc]

Proof! We need proof! Oh. Here it is. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJjOdXWgfM2BmZI

[@yusufcagowayne1990]

No one gives a fuck

[@Kinkajou1015]

As a former AT&T Employee, you hit pretty much everything on the head. One note, when you said AT&T Acquired Time Warner, they specifically acquired the media production companies and network channels, not the cable television and internet services, those went to Charter Communications and has been rebranded to Spectrum. A lot of people don't understand the distinction, so invariably at some point someone will probably ask if AT&T owns Spectrum.

[@benjipc5637]

There's also the fact that Time Inc. was split from Time Warner years before it was bought by AT&T. The "Time" in the name was kept until the acquisition was finished and the name changed to WarnerMedia.

[@mattjackson2172]

@@benjipc5637 AT&T acquisition of Time Warner included Warner Bros. Entertainment and Warner Bros.' 50% stake in The CW.

[@LilLorThatGamerFoo]

So AT&T now owns Cartoon network and all the old school cartoons like the Flintstones? Lol

[@billw8543]

I followed perfectly! Very well done. I have worked for AT&T for 39 years, 3 months and 3 days. I lived through all of that. In 1984 at divestiture we were in a Southwestern Bell building. They marked areas in the building with red and green tape I forget which one was which but it was supposed to designate what areas belonged to Southwestern Bell and what areas belongs to AT&T.. Everyone in the building knew each other and suddenly we were working for different companies, We didn’t really know whether we could cross the lines on the floor that were the wrong color or not after a while though it was just the way it always was and the tape began to wear away. It was amusing to us.

[@asianstud7]

Wow that's crazy. 2 companies in 1 building over night.

[@darkNfamous]

I was one of those Cingular customers that got changed to AT&T with that acquisition. But then a year later we moved to Verizon anyway and we’ve been with Verizon since.

[@admiralfrosty3495]

Which was formed from two regional spinoffs from AT&T 🤣

[@Hopeofmen]

Same with us. We used to have Cingular, now AT&T, and we've stuck with them since...but only just barely.

[@wes2262]

When are you switching to Metro PCS?

[@Stoneface_]

Wes B which company owns metro pcs?

[@jokerman6803]

@@Stoneface_ Tmobile

[@elijahfordsidioticvarietys8770]

Terrible monopollies that are ruining everything: Comcast, Verizon, AT&T. Turns out it’s just AT&T.

[@bananya6020]

goddamn it at&t!

[@Dratchev241]

not just ATT comcast is horrid as well.

[@elijahfordsidioticvarietys8770]

Oh yeah Comcast. Eh, all Disney does is make films.

[@elijahfordsidioticvarietys8770]

I’d also add Google and Amazon to the list.

[@mistertheking]

They all came from the 1980s AT&T. So I'd say you're lucky that the split happened or it'd really just be AT&T and not Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T competing against each other.

[@user-pf3qf4cu7f]

I heard you like AT&T, so we bought AT&T with AT&T and formed AT&T

[@ChrisEvans429]

I'm a 3rd generation telecommunications technician. My grandfather started working for western electric in the 60's. Thanks for making this video and last weeks, you're awesome man.

[@joeruiz9029]

Chris Evans good old Western Electric. Made a lot of friends that worked with Western Electric while I was working with “The Telephone Company” in California back in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

[@dfletchersoul]

Please make a video on WarnerMedia! The newly formed company combining all of the media assets of At&t/Time Warner. So large!

[@ChiralSpirals]

Its called spectrum...and it sucks just as bad as anything else you get with at&t backing it. Warner has the rights to media and at&t owns all the networks and hardware to supply said media so they hooked up to create something quite shitty....yiu woukd think it would be great but you know......at&t.

[@phoenix5054]

echo sigma Time Warner Cable became Spectrum. Time Warner, the media company, is a separate company that was bought by AT&T.

[@ChiralSpirals]

@@phoenix5054 okay..I was a bit off and do stand corrected however timewarner cable was an asset of warner media untill the deal, I was not aware that it was released as its own company as a part of the deal thus the swich to spectrum...well..either case...it still sucks amd I still blame at&t..somehow.

[@davidroberts4923]

echo sigma TWC was actually spun off years before the deal. In 2009 it spun off from Time Warner. From 2009-2016 TWC operated completely independently until it was acquired by Spectrum. The AT&T acquisition of Time Warner had nothing to do with TWC. See en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Warner_Cable

[@CosmoPhotography]

@@davidroberts4923 As a Time Warner, now Warner Media (AT&T) employee, this is correct. Time Warner Cable was spun off into its own separate company years before AT&T thought about acquiring Time Warner.

[@cee9585]

My mom worked for southwestern bell as an area manager and made her way up to director during all of the 1995 shenanigans eventually making it to working for At&t after Cingular . She approved of your video btw and said you did a pretty good job explaining it which she shouldn’t do. I couldn’t follow the video either . But thank you for this nonetheless. Mom seemed really happy to share some pretty good stories with me about all this and it was the closest I’ve felt to her in awhile hearing her talk through all this and all the people she met. It really felt like she was happy working there and looked back everything fondly. Even though she ended up leaving att in 2015. It was nice to talk to her again. Thank you.

[@SikSlayer]

You should do one on Verizon next. Verizon, from what I understand, is many of the Baby Bells all in one, as well as a few other things like MCI. This would be a great follow-up video topic.

[@syxepop]

SikSlayer, if you've put attention to what Mike here said (and also know as a marketing issue) SBC / AT&T (most of the West and South, except a few chunks here and there) bought even more areas than those what it would become Verizon (mostly the Northeast and East down to VA). But Verizon did get MCI and GTE before venturing into most outside businesses they kept, like today's WarnerMedia (Time was sold twice, first the magazine group and then just the magazine title itself). It is SO COMPLICATED that left room for more eps...

[@syxepop]

Josh Diaz, what I did state is that AT&T / SBC "BOUGHT MORE MARKET AREA" than what eventually became Verizon did... And yes, I did now correct some words that made it like Cingular and Verizon (at the time Verizon Wireless, which was 45% owned by British telco Vodafone) had any business ownership relation (Thanks!).

[@joshdznyc]

syxepop the legal name is still Cellco Partnership for who knows what reason since it’s 100% owned by Verizon

[@ZacharyLaid]

Feel bad for anyone who bought into At&t at the top of the dot com bubble... almost 20 years later and still nowhere near recovering....

[@UndergroundTech]

AT&T did pay dividends so it wasn't that bad if you've held the shares since then.

[@hitkid2456]

Dude the cheek in that profile is shiny it looked like there was a tear stream for a sec. Would have been fitting.

[@TJKNIGHT401]

You missed the part where US West became Qwest, which is now CenturyLink.

[@johniii8147]

Travis Knight He said he didn’t cover everything

[@orsonstarbuck]

I thought that CenturyLink bought Qwest, making a bad situation worse.

[@SWLinPHX]

Travis Knight: I was just about to comment on that and now I don’t have to. Even though he said he didn’t cover everything if he went through the trouble of using that graphic of mergers from the original seven then why not show the US West to Qwest to CenturyLink transition?

[@pilotgrrl1]

Dealing with Qwest was like dealing with a third world country's Telco m

[@Yahriel]

@Rowdy Jr. Somewhat relatedly, the CenturyLink field's neighbor, formerly Safeco Field, was recently renamed T-Mobile Park.

[@raythomas2133]

The multi year analysis of this saga rarely mentions the employees who lived through it all. I was there when there were over a million employees. At Divestiture, many people 'followed their jobs' but marketing/sales were told to choose a company. When we asked about jobs, salaries, future opportunities, products, market area, benefits, etc., we were told, "we don't know, but you have to choose".

[@BradFoust1826]

I'm glad there's a Rise and Fall and Rise Again video. There was some info missed in the last video. I find the story of AT&T very interesting. I had to look all this up, because I wanted to know how AT&T was able to buy back it's other companies, and it turns out they didn't it's all SBC.

[@TheGreatCooLite]

Do "Nintendo: The Rise and Fall and Rise Again"

[@Yafama]

I mean depends on how far back you wanna go if to the beginning there is way more highs and all time highs and lows.

[@arthurmorgan9559]

@Albert Menendez Nintendo used to have places called sex hotels do a video on that company man!

[@Magic_Ice]

Very Epic

[@thelittenguy]

Would be great...

[@mattwolf7698]

That could use several parts actually. They have a ton of history from before they even got into video games.

[@Xyriax]

If you want history classes, this is where you should go.

[@zoautomotive]

I remember working at a Cingular Wireless store. I was hired just after the buy out and worked through the re-brand back to ATT Wireless. We were using 3 operating systems at one time helping older ATT Customers while activating new Cingular customers.

[@theluigifan1]

I remember the Cingular commercials and how they eventually said “Cingular is now AT&T!” Takes me back lol

[@JustinY.]

Could you please make a video about AMD's rise, fall, and rise again?

[@amazingfortniteparodys9758]

Justin Y. Oh it’s you

[@MM-xm5vx]

Justin Y. I see you don’t get the likes you did in your prime. It it the fall of your rise story. Will company man make a video about the rise and fall and maybe rise again of Justin y

[@bonboncitto6031]

He had made a website for suggestions. But your a busy man, now go comment on all the videos we watch

[@Omar-em7rl]

hey, you're active again, where did you go to for like 10months?

[@drone_better7757]

Please never stop what you're doing.

[@adamackels73]

You could continue on, but the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. That gets confusing, too.

[@TugsP]

I worked for at&t wireless when it became Cingular and rode that through the rebranding. I specifically recall an internal communication where they said the Cingular name had become tarnished with a bad reputation (which was earned because their customer service sucked) and they wanted to start "fresh".

[@asianstud7]

😂😂😂😂 dude before cingular was bought by at&t, at&t was the worst of all the carriers back then.

[@rrad8106]

I worked for them from 1999 to last year, and worked through all that change. Pretty much spot on. BTW - The initials "AT&T" carry a lot more brand recognition than Cingular or SBC. Those acquisitions were for the NAME.

[@josuegonzalez3660]

Okaaaayyyyy sooo I’m going to ask for at&t bigger than you know cuz this seems like there’s a lot more to this....

[@SalmanAli-hn2kt]

Yea so true

[@Kinkajou1015]

You don't want to know how big AT&T actually is. It's like Cthulhu. Once you see it, you'll go mad.

[@FallingForYou20]

@@Kinkajou1015 YUP

[@leroybrad5944]

I pray everyone who reads this becomes extremely successful and encounter a kind of blessings that will overcome your fears! Spend less and invest more

[@brainsalexis8772]

I don't know who needs to hear this, saving money won't make you a millionaire investing will ... Take out some money and invest ,Do it wisely Tho.

[@mariajean8571]

Exactly fine words ! I've heard all day... crypto has become a lucrative and profitable way of making money nowadays.

[@nelsonkurt8721]

I actually see crypto currency taking over the financial world ! it's making waves.

[@christophdegwerth449]

investing is good but investing in the right thing is the actual key to success

[@brainsalexis8772]

@@christophdegwerth449 I agree 💯 with you

[@jacobginsburg3457]

I've been watching this channel for over a year and I think this is one of the best episodes you've put out. Very interesting, informative, and entertaining.

[@Akzidentz]

I have a friend who had Cingular. They had a $50 unlimited everything deal. He had that same contract for years even after Cingular sold. AT&T tried so hard to get him to upgrade to an AT&T plan to get him off his grandfathered contract. Took 10 years. Good for him

[@Telcomvic]

I started with Ohio Bell an AT&T subsidiary in 1973. I lived through it all: Ohio Bell > Ameritech > SBC > AT&T. This video was a 40,000 ft view for sure. Good job Company man for an overview of a very complex time in telcom.

[@genjaxx1463]

Where at in Ohio?

[@Telcomvic]

@@genjaxx1463 Akron

[@genjaxx1463]

@@Telcomvic Ok.I grew up in Columbus.I got a buddy that's almost 20 years with them.

[@sarysa]

Inspired by and envious of her siblings' success, US West went on to write a series of successful young adult novels. The HBO adaptation is scheduled for 2021, bringing everything full circle.

[@catlover10192]

US West is actually doing pretty well for itself under the name Century Link.

[@TheJIMIJAM27]

Thank you for finishing that up. You actually cleared up confusion for me. I was a Cingular wireless customer when that all went down.

[@TheGreyLight]

Despite AT&T's failures in the computer market, they are responsible for the computers and phones we use today. Bell Labs essentially created the framework for macOS, iOS and Android.

[@almightyliek1652]

Hey company man. Can you do a video of the rise of discount phone services. Like cricket wireless, boost mobile, metro pics, company's like that

[@bigboyzone]

I would love to see this

[@tastefullys]

Same

[@harktheheral]

It's funny you list the three that are all owned by the Big Boys (Cricket = AT&T label, Boost = Sprint label, Metro = T-Mobile label) compared to actual US MVNOs...which are almost all owned by by America Movil (TracFone, StraightTalk, Net10, SIMPLE). It's insane to me how all the "alternatives" are the same.

[@wobbetilde7497]

Cricket is owned by AT&T, Metro is owned by T-Mobile, and Boost Mobile is owned by T-Mobile.

[@darinkoenemann14]

@@wobbetilde7497 Boost is actually now owned by Dish.

[@jimmx2]

At&t story is so much more deeper than this... But for your format, I understand boiling it down.

[@MrPMartinez1]

Jimmy Underwood agreed. If anyone thinks selling off any of these divisions was a full acquisition, u btr think again. AT&T owns a percentage in all of these companies. Only a few bought out the remaining ownership due to AT&T believe government action would be a possibility.

[@richardmills1505]

I actually lived the AT&T saga from 1984 on. My family was Ma Bell loyal since the beginning of time. And thus, so was I. I had an AT&T Universal MasterCard. It doubled as a telephone credit card/MasterCard with a very high starting limit of $5,500. I had AT&T worldwide Gold plan LD, and my first phone and digital answering machine were AT&T brand that I bought at Sears, Roebuck. My first cell phone service in 1998 was with AT&T Wireless, $150/mo for 3500 "anytime" minutes (and this was before text messaging existed) and here in Sacramento, CA we originally had Sacramento Cable, owned by Scripps Howard Co., which was bought out in 1993/4 by Comcast which in turn became AT&T Cable and then in 1997 became Comcast once again and has remained so for 25 years. So your video made perfect sense to me! Well done!

[@incrediblySmart]

You do such a great job making sure the complex is simplified and entertaining. I look forward to your content every week.

[@BugsyFoga]

Man , a bunch of companies always seem to go on a pattern of being at a high or a low

[@catalystv7520]

Nathaniel Foga I know right?! Almost like things come and go.

[@AndrewVaughanOfficial]

Typical for American companies. American companies don't bank a lot of money and go for quick expansion and high risk high reward strategies over time. In contrast, Asian companies are much more conservative

[@ChefBrokeardee]

That’s how mafia works

[@dcsmooth]

You do not one but TWO videos on AT&T and there’s no mention of Lucent Technologies?? Maybe a video for the rise and fall of them?

[@user-bz9sj8mh5d]

Western Electric/Lucent Technologies' history was far too convoluted to be shoehorned into this one.

[@lostintime8651]

@@user-bz9sj8mh5d short attention span

[@St0rmcrash]

Yeah the Lucent story definitely deserves an episode, especially as one of the principal characters in the setup to their financial scandal, Carly Fiorina, went on to begin the downfall of HP as their CEO. And speaking of financial scandals I read somewhere that AT&T was severely wounded by the MCI/Worldcom scandal. They tried to compete fairly against a company that was cooking the books and had to take a lot of losses and make a lot of cuts as a result. In the end AT&T maintained it's ethics but it helped weaken them to the point where SBC could buy them. A lot of the spinoffs for broadband and wireless were due to needing cash

[@Angeld3vi1]

Does GE own lucent

[@dcsmooth]

Stormcrash I lived it, I worked at the Lucent Technologies plant in North Andover, Mass between ‘98-‘01. It was a wild ride with so much scandal. When I got hired there I thought I had a career for life.... I was laid off in less than three years. Crazy.

[@mind-of-neo]

I didnt know AT&T was so big their biggest competitor was originally one of their companies!

[@honkhonkler7732]

The old telephone box from the 1990s on the outside of my house still says Southwestern Bell. The phone was disconnected years ago, yet there it remains.

[@MartinIDavies]

I too worked for AT&T... the Dark Lord...twice.. first time at AT&T Data Systems.. not a happy company.. back in mid 80's we would go to sales training facility in Aurora/Denver CO affectionately called "Darth Vader University".. it was a 6 story black glass cube building.. some people went mad due to pressure.. one was discovered taking a showers at 4 am dressed in his 'dress for success' suite singing.. we didn't see him again.. oh yes the logo was called the Death Star.. just thought I'd contribute some tribal knowledge of working for the dark side.. paid well though with great health benefits and useless but dangerous bosses who had no idea about about selling or making computers work.. Eventually the thought police caught up with me :-)

[@martylucas8557]

Ha! Darth Vader U., yes I remember it well! I spun off with Lucent Technologies. I remember the Paradyne acquisition for $36B, which no longer exists. Lucent’s market capitalization in ‘97 was approximately $450B. There was talk of purchasing Cisco…which would also no longer exist had they actually gone through with it! LOL! I then spun off with Avaya. It was a good ride until I left in 2005 to work for a National Business Partner I’d brought on.

[@henrylarson8417]

You should make a video on CINGULAR WIRELESS!!! Please :)

[@mokey5915]

I second this! I loved my time with Cingular.

[@baroness1125]

I remember leaving AT&T for Cingular and ending right back under AT&T.

[@oscarchavez2854]

@@baroness1125 Cingular was at&t all this time brother!

[@FJParravicini]

You put a huge amount of effort and it shows man! Been subbed for a while and hope to be able to continue enjoying your quality stuff!

[@Foxonian]

I remember when my local cable tv co became AT&T Broadband. They had just finnished rebranding all their trucks, offices and equipment when Comcast took over. So, they had to spend another year 're-rebranding everything again. And the monthly bill jumped by $50 too.

[@mistertheking]

So basically: AT&T split up, one of the split up companies, SBC, bought a bunch of the split up companies out, along with their former parent company. Founded a wireless company with BellSouth (another company formed from the split), then bought BellSouth. They changed their name to AT&T as it was the most recognizable name they owned. (It also meant the end of their sponsorship in NASCAR with Richard Childress Racing, as the Cingular name was grandfathered in after Nextel took over the title sponsor role in 2004, but AT&T was not.) So the AT&T we know today is basically just SBC. And the Verizon we know today was formed from the remnants of AT&T in the northeast. What about US West? Well, they merged with an unrelated telecom company called Qwest, and they eventually merged with CenturyLink. So there you have it.

[@phong4396]

Apparently they owned T-mobile for a time too. Crazy how a company used to own their biggest competitors at some point

[@GreatMewtwo]

@@phong4396 They tried to buy T-Mobile USA around 2011 but failed due to government intervention.

[@YEdwardP]

Sometimes, when I hear about these companies breaking and merging and all that complicated stuff, I can't help but think that this behaviour is more the the result of emergent behavour rather than planned behaviour. For those who don't know, "emergent behaviour" is when some entity seems like it behaves in a coordinated matter, but doesn't actually have a central planner. A school of fish, for example, is a classic example of emergent property. On the whole, there's a certain logic, a certain group behaviour, but there is obviously no central, fish-in-chief that plans every movement. Instead, each individual fish follows a simple set of beahviours (avoid collision with other fish, stay close to other fishes, swim in same direction as other fishes, etc) but overall, this more complex behaviour arises. To bring it back to AT&T, I sometimes get the feeling that executives and lawyers, much like the fish, are just taking things one day at a time, following "simple" goals (increase profits, increase market share, acquire other companies, etc) but there's no clear overall goal or coordinator that gives orders to each individual company. It's just this sort of amorphous entity that sort of just exists, sometimes splits, then merges again and just sort of... exists. Anyway, that's my rant for today.

[@miss__monique]

You do a great job of explaining the confusing stuff. I found you videos a few days ago and now I binge it. They are very informative

[@SirRavian]

Yes I was able to follow it fine. Because I lived through it and followed it in real life. Grew up with South Western Bell. Was in middle school when AT&T was broke up and remember it being directly blamed on Reagan. Then seeing Sprint, GTE, MCI, etc. Had Sprint when I moved from home while watching pay phones switch to Bell South. Watched a great register company NCR who supplied the registers for years where i worked get bought by them and witnessed the disaster that was. Watched them finally get spun off and was thankful. Sprint as first cell phone. Switched to Cingular, watched it get bought out by . . . AT&T. And here i am back where it started. South Western Bell.

[@murrowboy]

So DC Verus Marvel is basically AT&T vs Disney.

[@UBvtuber]

Funny that you mention that considering Disney is itself becoming a gigantic entertainment monopoly.

[@sladewilson377]

@@UBvtuber but then Disney can’t really afford to buy anymore companies tho

[@koryschulein7778]

I'd love to see you do a video on the pro wrestling company, WCW.

[@goudagirl6095]

Worked in telecom for 10 years. We went crazy a few times trying to keep up with everything, what with all the mergers, name changes, and lawsuits in the industry. I recall someone saying that "telecom was virtually recession proof." A couple years later the dot-com bubble burst, and with it, the telecommunications industry took a major nosedive. My co. laid off about 90% of its workforce, then went belly up a short while later. Good times. 🙄

[@mikebull7775]

One of my favorite subjects , great overview, pretty amazing isn't it? Funny too that so many time travel or future based movies always have AT&T still around and so far so good!! 😊 Great content!

[@designergrant3853]

Please do Verizon. I work there and would be more than willing to help give information on the company! I would love to know more about Verizon!

[@desroywhite]

I followed it very well...you did a great job!

[@ashleyjunior1645]

Desroy White hey how are you doing there

[@desroywhite]

Man Junior there were?

[@ashleyjunior1645]

Desroy White I don't understand you please

[@Zaemon037]

This is the best KZbin channel right now.

[@RobertGrif]

I'm so glad you made this one! :)

[@BigEightiesNewWave]

I remember in the early 80s when we could finally buy our own phones ! Instead of rent from the telco. He missed a big deal that happened with the DOJ lawsuit. There are still people paying Bell for phone rental fees !!!

[@J-1410]

IIRC, that means they still get free telephone repair

[@dcsmooth]

NYNEX was pronounced “nigh-neks” “We’re the one for you, New England; New England telephone”

[@B3Band]

We're all connected, New York Telephone

[@vaibanez17]

I grew up in a Southwestern Bell region in the 80s and 90s. My first cellphone was with Cingular. When Cingular changed names to AT&T wireless, we got letters in the mail explaining that our service wasnt changing nor our phone numbers. Ive had AT&T ever since.

[@1mlb704]

I kind of already knew a lot of this so I could follow along, and I still learned a lot of stuff. I remember as a kid in Massachusetts our AT&T cable became Comcast, and around that time we had Bell Atlantic then all of a sudden we had Verizon. Now it all makes sense haha

[@collinpylar1231]

Which one is better?? Like for Verizon, comment for AT&T.

[@brandonwood1024]

At&t because they have multiple capabilities

[@robertfletcher3421]

Westrex had a monopoly in the movie sound system both optical and magnetic. That is a story in itself.

[@adamsaldana5462]

This is the best wholesome channel on this website. Mike is so nice

[@banimal11]

Yoo, I recommended the whole baby bell situation and AT&T. It's cool as hell that you made two videos on it!

[@kaibaCorpHQ]

I remember when that Cingular and AT&T thing went down, it was like "Oh hey, I'm part of Cingular now.....oh nevermind, I'm part of AT&T again...ok...". Seems like AT&T needs to be broken up again, it just came back together overtime, it's just missing it's Verizon component, which...let's be honest, can burn in hell (I got a prepaid hotspot from them, and they are the most terrible company I've ever dealt with).

[@VinnyLam]

All the major corporations that have ever been broken up have all come back together again. Just look at Standard Oil for example. It was broken up into 34 companies, but since then, those 34 companies have remerged into just 3 companies: ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Marathon.

[@brycmtthw]

Vincent Lam uhhhh wrong. BP is very much a Standard Oil successor.

[@willmatic84]

My job just got a contract with at&t we make and paint truck bodies for them 😋.

[@zanethecaneyt7108]

My dad works at AT&T and he worked at Cingular. Absolutely GOATED.

[@CosmoPhotography]

Btw, you do an awesome job with your videos -- incredible job, Company Man!

[@abbba2007]

Just imagine the juggernaut power of an unrestricted original AT&T if only few of their regional divisions managed to become our day Verizon and AT&T...

[@TiberianFiend]

They would've eventually lost power to cellular companies, anyways. No physical wires needed, so no "natural monopoly".

[@pulaski1]

@@TiberianFiend Er, the need for a network of cell towers, which is massively expensive to create, and expensive to maintain, is every bit as much a natural monopoly as the wired-phone network was - that is why there are really only three cell phone companies in the US, and if there wasn't anti-trust legislation they would merge into a monopoly cell phone company.

[@Greenscyth22]

4:14 MCI...once mighty, now just another absorbed phone giant causality of the Phone Wars. My mom use to work for Bell Atlantic too.

[@theme7363]

clean and interesting, easy to follow and one of the betterest stories so far. one of your best videos

[@ethanletzer3507]

Definitely the hardest video to follow yet lol. Thanks for the great content!!

[@DanRamosDR]

How about, relatedly to AT&T, covering the rise and fall of @Home (the company that invented cable Internet) ....and yeah, there's some strange ties to AT&T.

[@mechajay3358]

So really the US Government order AT&T not to become a monopoly, and in the end they became a more small efficient one.

[@mattbowdenuh]

So this is how I became an AT&T customer without ever first choosing AT&T. First I was a Southwestern Bell customer. Then, I was a Cingular customer. Next I was a Direct TV customer. Most recently, I was a TWC customer (now called Spectrum for some reason). So AT&T has taken over my life without me ever initially choosing to use their services...

[@nareshsookraj9230]

I love watching these videos because I'm going to start a business and just to see successful companies and what they did to become successful inspires me and the companies that failed and what they did wrong such as splitting up into too many entities or expanding too rapidly very quickly it's very motivating interesting stuff! Thank you company man! Keep making these awesome videos! ✨💯

[@cgrchopstick5773]

You should do KZbin. The rise and fall, and fall, and fall again.

[@emigdiohernandez1530]

That's alot of falls

[@jormacox]

It would be a DECLINE

[@howdoiplaydis8460]

Do Comcast some time. They tried to buy time warner before AT&T but the FCC said no

[@dfletchersoul]

Probably because they already owned Universal

[@yhggggvbb]

Time Warner cable and time Warner company are different Comcast doesn't have enough money to buy original time Warner.......

[@PapaWheelie1]

The analog wireline phone system from ATT was one of the most reliable systems I can think of. The phone would work even if the power was out for weeks - I can’t ever remember a dropped call. We have become ok with 75% when 99.999 was a thing

[@EdwardTravels]

I worked at US West after the breakup of ATT. It’s been interesting watching ATT become ATT. It’s been a crazy ride

[@minecraftmaniac0909]

AT&T created its own enemy (Verizon)

[@oscarchavez2854]

Is hard to believe right!

[@theworldofmicah]

Well from what I read all of the telecom companies are owned by the same shareholders who are made up of a bunch of firms and individuals investors.

[@davidvega1353]

Micah Watkins more like the same people.

[@theworldofmicah]

@@davidvega1353 yes very true just different branding and different networks.

[@mysteryidk4426]

Here I am wondering just when Company Man: Endgame is coming out with all these followup videos he makes

[@jason9875]

My Grandpa worked at Bell and remembers the split as a bad thing. This was because he said Bell had the best communications network in the world and breaking them up broke up that network. So he ended up working for Bell-Atlantic, then AT&T, and finally Verizon until he retired. At AT&T he was also involved with computers and helped out with the communications at the Barcelona Olympics.

[@_jayyl3539]

You have one of my favorite KZbin channels! I used to always look up random things and random company’s on Wikipedia and other websites just because I always like learning the history of things, especially company’s. I didn’t think weirdos like me existed in the world. And by weirdo I mean people who care to have knowledge of a company for no real reason other than just being interested lol. Your channel scratches the itch I have to learn about the history of a company and I really enjoy how much information you put in to each video. I was going to make a similar channel to this but I just never found the time. Videos like these are very time consuming from the start of research all the way through to editing everything together and you do a great job at including the most important historical points of a company. Keep up the awesome hard work man! Also, can I make a minor suggestion? Maybe you could start displaying the date or the year(s) that you are referring to when narrating certain points? I pay close attention and like to follow along and sometimes I find myself rewinding the video just to try and catch the date or year you are referring to after you say things like “a few years later.” Just a preference, maybe nobody else cares because you always go over the whole time line in summary but it would be cool if you added that minor tweak. Cheers!

[@ddawg6992]

Can you do the history of Verizon??

[@theenzoferrari458]

Yes I've requested it to. :]

[@NitroGirl18]

I agree, and I use to work for Verizon 😖

[@tk0208]

Hey! I was wondering if sometime you could make a video about Chilis versus Applebee’s?

[@andrewkful]

Why is there no Chili's in Manhattan?

[@johniii8147]

Both chains are struggling and closing locations. Trends are moving on from the 80s/90s concepts that were heavily focused on mall goers

[@MrLaneSir]

Hello Company man, love your videos. You did a great job with this one. Not confused at all. I remember Cingular Wireless prior to AT&T.

[@dolevmazker736]

thanks man , needed this

[@idknotsure9620]

Before Tyler, The Creator released earthquake: no earthquake After Tyler, The Creator released earthquake: significantly more earthquake

[@kellie8969]

You could do a video on Marvel. In the 90s they were a failure of a company.

[@ChloeDunIT]

Cingular wireless was my first cellphone carrier! Then it became ATT. I never knew why until now! Thanks a CompanyMan!

[@antdogg653]

Love your videos, great work and research as always