It’s Official: SBC Buys AT&T; Becomes “New” AT&T; Will Rebrand Cingular

Updated Sunday night: SBC Communications closed its deal to acquire AT&T Corp. today, waved a magic wand and became AT&T Inc. when California regulators delivered the last approval needed. Ed Whitacre, Jr. becomes chairman and CEO of the new company; trading under the “T” symbol begins Dec. 1. The logo will be unveiled Monday. For a sense of scope, the new AT&T:

– is the largest U.S. provider of DSL & local/long-distance voice

– the #1 provider of data services to the Fortune 1000

– 60 percent owner of market-leading Cingular Wireless (52 million subscribers)

Update: Even though BellSouth owns 40 percent of Cingular, Whitacre told USA Today the wireless service will be rebranded with the AT&T name although Cingular could stick in some markets. Mind you, some of us AT&T Wireless legacy customers have yet to switch to Cingular service; changing networks includes an activation fee, which could mean a legacy AT&T customer could wind up being charged to have a new AT&T account.

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