14 DAY TRIAL // AT&T and BellSouth Corporation, the joint owners of Cingular Wireless, announced an agreement to merge the two companies. The resulting company will combine the Cingular, BellSouth and AT&T networks into a single fully integrated wireless and wireline Internet Protocol network offering a full range of advanced solutions.
"This merger is a logical next step that creates substantial value for customers and stockholders of both AT&T and BellSouth," said AT&T Chairman and CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr. "It will benefit customers through new services and expanded service capabilities. It will strengthen Cingular through unified ownership and a single brand. And we are confident that this is a merger we can execute, based on our track record with previous integrations and our experience working closely with BellSouth to create and build Cingular Wireless, and operate Yellowpages.com."
One of the most immediate benefits of the transaction will be the enhancement of management and operations at Cingular. "The Cingular partnership and the company itself are performing extremely well, particularly after the AT&T Wireless acquisition," said Whitacre. "But no partnership between two independent companies, no matter how well run, can match the speed, effectiveness, responsiveness and efficiency of a solely owned company."
While the majority of Cingular's operations will remain unchanged, simplifying the ownership structure will lead to more efficient marketing and service provisioning which will come under a single AT&T brand. The merger will also allow for closer integration of the company's wireless, wireline, and IP products and services over a single global IP network.
"Technology changes and convergence are shaping a new competitive dynamic and creating tremendous opportunity," said Duane Ackerman, chairman and CEO of BellSouth. "We're creating a company with much better capabilities to seize these opportunities while maintaining its strong focus on customer service and community involvement."