BellSouth (BLS) shareholders voted today to approve the sale of the company to rival AT&T (T) for $67 billion in stock. Should federal and state regulators approve the merger, it is expected to be finalized by the end of the year.BellSouth and AT&T are the parent companies to Atlanta-based Cingular Wireless LLC, and in papers presented to the FCC the companies said that Cingular has been a successful venture. However, a merger between the companies would help reduce challenges arising from the joint management structure. AT&T currently owns 60% of Cingular, with BellSouth owning the remaining 40%.
AT&T stated that it plans to cut 10,000 jobs once the merger is final, with cuts coming over a three year period. The company also said that it intends to leave Cingular headquarters in Atlanta for at least 5 years, but after that no official plans have been made.
With the merger, AT&T will have 70 million local line phone customers, 54.1 million wireless customers and close to 10 million broadband internet users through 22 states.
AT&T will pay 1.325 shares of stock for each share of BellSouth.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-21-2006 @ 2:55PM
mark R said...
There almost done reassembling the old bell system. Were just a merger or two from the bad old days.