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by riffic 1712 days ago
the existing AT&T is not the previous AT&T.

edit: sources

* Current AT&T: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T

* Old AT&T: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Corporation

* History: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_AT%26T

3 comments

The existing AT&T is just a zombie formed from 5 of the original 8 fragments of the old AT&T. I can’t help but wonder how many former coworkers at AT&T in 1981 where reunited in 2014 without ever having left the fragments.
At least some of the fragments were doing a lot of pushing out of older employees in the 2000s, so probably not a whole lot left, but I like the concept.
No, it's the previous AT&T with some parts factored out (most notably, Verizon). It also apparently managed to remerge several parts of itself over the years, which is mind boggling (how that didn't trigger immediate court action is beyond me): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System
Oh but it is. Culture doesn't tend to change, particularly with ridiculous "rebranding" exercises.