Marking the end of an era in the telecommunications industry, SBC Communications on Friday finalized its US$16 billion acquisition of AT&T, creating the biggest US firm in the sector.
The companies sealed a deal in which SBC, one of the "Baby Bells" created in the 1980s breakup of American Telephone and Telegraph, acquires its former parent, the once-powerful "Ma Bell."
AT&T, a company whose history dates back to 1885, is being swallowed up in the deal.
But SBC has decided to adopt the storied AT&T name for the merged company.
"Today marks the birth of AT&T Inc and of a new standard-bearer in communications, entertainment and service for the 21st century," SBC said in a statement.
"The combined company is now poised to lead the industry in one of the most significant shifts in communications technology since the invention of the telephone more than 120 years earlier -- the deployment of integrated services based on Internet Protocol, giving customers access to virtually any services, anytime, anywhere," SBC said.
The new company and will start trading under the ticker symbol "T" on the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 1. In the interim, it will trade under the existing "SBC" symbol. A new corporate logo will be unveiled tomorrow.
"Today is big step in the changes that are reshaping the telecommunications marketplace," independent telecoms analyst Jeff Kagan said.
"This merger of SBC and AT&T, and the coming merger of Verizon with MCI, are big, big news in the telecom industry. We have watched the industry change over the last 10 to 15 years. In 1996 the Telecom Act spelled out the rules of competition between the local and long distance telephone companies. The local companies have won that war and are acquiring the long distance giants," he said.
The new telecom giant will vie for the top spot in the market with Verizon, another Baby Bell which plans to complete its acquisition of MCI, the company formed following the bankruptcy of WorldCom, early next year.
Verizon/MCI and SBC/AT&T will each have more than US$70 billion in annual revenues. And both are involved in a full range of services from fixed line service to long distance to wireless and high-speed Internet.
Both are also working on plans for Internet-based television systems that will compete with the cable TV industry.
Consumer groups have complained that the huge mergers will diminish competition.
But Kagan said consumers will still have choices as the lines separating sectors fade.
"This is great news for the Bells as they gear up to compete with the cable television companies, and against each other," Kagan said.
"Yesterday we did business with both the telephone company and the cable television company because neither offered each other's service. But that is changing. Tomorrow we will be able to choose one or the other, the telephone company or the cable television company, and say goodbye to the other," he said.
"Over the course of the next year or two both sides will offer big bundles of services that look similar," Kagan said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”