Sometimes, I just wonder what they were thinking. A few months ago, Cingular embarked on a massive branding campaign, in an attempt to eradicate the AT&T Wireless brand name from the market place. Now a report USA Today quotes SBC CEO/Chairman Ed Whitacre saying that Cingular will drop the brand in favor of AT&T.
In an interview with USA TODAY on Friday, Whitacre left no doubt about his plans. Asked if the company planned to drop the Cingular name in favor of the AT&T brand, Whitacre said, ‘Yes, we do.’
Also, it has to be a procedural nightmare for the company which has still not been able to bring AT&T Wireless completely into the fold. It is hard to fault King Ed for thinking along those lines, as T still has a better brand name.
And since SBC is now officially called AT&T, it would make sense for SBC folks to give the impression that they are in charge. I wonder what BellSouth, which owns 40% of the wireless giant thinks of all this. Is it an indication that SBC/T will make a push and gobble up BellSouth?
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