AT&T Communications

Last updated

AT&T Communications
Company type Division
Industry
Predecessor AT&T Communications
FoundedAugust 1, 2017;6 years ago (2017-08-01)
Headquarters Whitacre Tower, ,
United States
Key people
Jeff McElfresh (CEO)
Products Wireless
Mobile phone
Broadband
Fixed line telephone
Home security
RevenueDecrease2.svg US$ 144 billion (2018)
Parent AT&T
Divisions Mobility
Consumer Wireline
Business Wireline
Subsidiaries AT&T Labs
AT&T Digital Life
AT&T Cybersecurity
Website www.att.com

AT&T Communications is a division of AT&T that focuses on mobile phone, broadband, fixed line telephone, home security, network security, and business services. The division houses AT&T Mobility, AT&T Internet, AT&T Phone, AT&T Long Distance, AT&T Labs, AT&T Digital Life, and AT&T Cybersecurity.

Contents

History and information

On July 28, 2017, AT&T announced a new AT&T Communications corporate division housing AT&T Mobility, DirecTV, U-verse, AT&T Business, AT&T Intellectual Property, AT&T Labs, Cricket Wireless, AT&T Digital Life, Vyatta, AT&T Adworks, and Technology and Operations Group. [1]

In October 2016, AT&T announced a deal to acquire Time Warner worth $85.4 billion (including assumed Time Warner debt). The proposed deal would give AT&T significant holdings in the media industry; AT&T's competitor Comcast had previously acquired NBCUniversal in a similar bid to increase its media holdings, in concert with its ownership of television and internet providers. If approved by federal regulators, the merger would bring Time Warner's properties under the same umbrella as AT&T's telecommunication holdings, including satellite provider DirecTV. [2] [3] [4]

By the end of July, the company announced that, effective August 1, a new structure was created before the acquisition would close. This structure has John Donovan take the title of CEO of the new AT&T Communications subsidiary division (incorporated that same day after a dividend payout). AT&T named John Stankey to run Time Warner media businesses and John Donovan as CEO of AT&T Communications ahead of the Time Warner acquisition. [5] [6] [7] In November 2017, the U.S. Justice Department said it was moving to sue to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger. [8] On November 20, 2017, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit over the acquisition; Makan Delrahim stated that the deal would "greatly harm American consumers". AT&T asserts that this suit is a "radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent". [9] On December 22, 2017, the merger agreement deadline was extended to June 21, 2018. [10] On June 12, 2018, the AT&T-Time Warner merger was approved by a federal judge. [11] Two days later, AT&T completed the acquisition of Time Warner, and a day later the company was renamed WarnerMedia.

On July 10, 2018, AT&T announced that it would acquire cybersecurity startup AlienVault for an undisclosed amount. [12] The acquisition was completed on August 22, 2018. [13]

AT&T Phone

AT&T Phone (formerly AT&T U-verse Voice) is a voice communication service delivered over AT&T's IP network (VoIP). This phone service is digital and provides a voicemail service accessed by *98 from the home number. Customers who subscribe to both AT&T Phone and U-verse TV get features such as call history on channel 9900, which displays the last 100 missed and answered calls on the customer's TV, and "Click to Call" from the TV history. AT&T Phone includes Caller ID, Call Blocking, Anonymous Call Blocker, and many other calling features. AT&T Phone was first available in Detroit, on January 22, 2008. [14] This service is separate from their POTS based offerings (Long Distance, 1010ATT/1010288, Intra-Lata, and non-VOIP landlines)

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WarnerMedia</span> American media conglomerate owned by AT&T (1990–2022)

Warner Media, LLC was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viacom (2005–2019)</span> American mass media company (2005–2019)

The second incarnation of Viacom Inc. was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate with interests primarily in film and television. It was established on December 31, 2005, as one of two companies which succeeded the original Viacom, alongside the second CBS Corporation. The controlling shareholder of both companies was National Amusements, a theater company headed by businessman Sumner Redstone. The split was structured so that the original Viacom changed its name to CBS Corporation and spun out its cable and film interests as a new Viacom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberty Media</span> American mass media company

Liberty Media Corporation, commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty, is an American mass media company founded by John C. Malone in 1991. The company has three divisions, reflecting its ownership stakes in Formula One, Sirius XM, and Live Nation Entertainment.

Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, just ahead of Comcast, and the largest pay TV operator ahead of Comcast and AT&T. Charter is the fifth-largest telephone provider based on number of residential lines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nexstar Media Group</span> American media company

Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarters in Irving, Texas, Midtown Manhattan, and Chicago. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television stations across the U.S., most of which are affiliated with the four "major" U.S. television networks and MyNetworkTV in markets as large as New York City and as small as San Angelo, Texas. It also operates all of the stations owned by affiliated companies, such as Mission Broadcasting and Vaughan Media, under local marketing agreements to satisfy existing regulations set in place by the Federal Communications Commission. In addition, Nexstar owns one radio station, WGN in Chicago, and operates major TV network the CW through a 75-percent majority stake where all CW affiliates are directly owned-and-operated stations (O&O), two terrestrial television networks airing classic shows, Antenna TV and Rewind TV, and has full or partial ownership stakes in three pay television networks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WUPW</span> Fox affiliate in Toledo, Ohio

WUPW is a television station in Toledo, Ohio, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by American Spirit Media, which maintains a joint sales agreement (JSA) with Tegna Inc., owner of CBS affiliate WTOL, for the provision of certain services. The two stations share studios on North Summit Street in downtown Toledo; WUPW's transmitter is located on Corduroy Road in Oregon, Ohio.

U-verse TV is a DirecTV brand of IPTV service. Launched on June 26, 2006, U-verse was originally a triple play package that included broadband Internet, IP telephone, and IPTV services in 48 states.

Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake Time, Sports Illustrated, Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Fortune, People, InStyle, Life, Golf Magazine, Southern Living, Essence, Real Simple, and Entertainment Weekly. It also had subsidiaries which it co-operated with the UK magazine house Time Inc. UK, whose major titles include What's on TV, NME, Country Life, and Wallpaper. Time Inc. also co-operated over 60 websites and digital-only titles including MyRecipes, Extra Crispy, TheSnug, HelloGiggles, and MIMI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Spirit Media</span> United States broadcasting company

American Spirit Media, LLC is a broadcasting company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded by Thomas B. Henson in 2003 as Ottumwa Media Holdings, it owns television stations in several cities in the Southeastern United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randall L. Stephenson</span> Telecommunications business executive

Randall Lynn Stephenson is a retired American telecommunications executive. He served as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of AT&T Inc. from May 9, 2007 – June 30, 2020 and as executive chairman of AT&T Inc. from July 1 until December 31, 2020. He served as National President of the Boy Scouts of America from 2016 to 2018. In April 2020, Stephenson announced he would step down as CEO of AT&T effective July 1, 2020, replaced by John Stankey. In November 2020, Stephenson announced he would step down as executive chairman of AT&T effective January 2021, replaced by William Kennard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DirecTV</span> American direct broadcast satellite and streaming TV company

DirecTV, LLC is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It also provides traditional linear television service delivered by IP through its U-verse TV brand and a Virtual MVPD service through its DirecTV Stream brand. Its primary competitors are Dish Network, traditional cable television providers, IP-based television services, and other over-the-top video services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AT&T</span> American multinational telecommunications holding company

AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's fourth-largest telecommunications company by revenue and the largest wireless carrier in the United States. As of 2023, AT&T was ranked 13th on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations, with revenues of $120.7 billion.

AT&T Sports Networks, LLC (ATTSN) was a group of regional sports networks in the United States that primarily own and operate AT&T Sports Networks. It was owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through TNT Sports. Each of the networks carried regional broadcasts of sporting events from various professional, collegiate and high school sports teams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space City Home Network</span> Regional sports network in Houston

The Space City Home Network is an American regional sports network owned jointly by the Houston Rockets and Houston Astros.

The history of AT&T dates back to the invention of the telephone. The Bell Telephone Company was established in 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell, who obtained the first US patent for the telephone, and his father-in-law, Gardiner Greene Hubbard. Bell and Hubbard also established American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885, which acquired the Bell Telephone Company and became the primary telephone company in the United States. This company maintained an effective monopoly on local telephone service in the United States until anti-trust regulators agreed to allow AT&T to retain Western Electric and enter general trades computer manufacture and sales in return for its offer to split the Bell System by divesting itself of ownership of the Bell Operating Companies in 1982.

Spectrum SportsNet LA and Spectrum Deportes LA is an American regional sports network jointly owned by the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball team and Charter Communications through its acquisition of Time Warner Cable in May 2016. The channel's programming is devoted completely to the Dodgers, and includes coverage of all Dodgers games not being exclusively televised by MLB's national television partners, along with news, interview, and documentary programming focusing on the team.

Tegna Inc. is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies. Tegna comprised the more profitable broadcast television and digital media divisions of the old Gannett, while Gannett's publishing interests were spun off as a "new" company that retained the Gannett name. Tegna owns or operates 68 television stations in 54 markets, and holds properties in digital media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DirecTV Stream</span> Streaming pay TV service provider

DirecTV Stream is a family of streaming multichannel television services offered in the United States by DirecTV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AT&T Internet</span> Broadband internet service

AT&T Internet is an AT&T brand of broadband internet service. Previously, AT&T Internet was branded as U-verse Internet and bundled with U-verse TV, which was spun off into the newly independent DirecTV in 2021. AT&T Internet plans powered by fiber-optic cable use the AT&T Fiber brand.

John T. Stankey is an American businessman who is the CEO of AT&T He previously was AT&T's president and COO and before that CEO of WarnerMedia. Stankey led AT&T's acquisition of DirecTV and Time Warner in 2015 and 2018, respectively. He assumed the CEO role of AT&T in July 2020, succeeding Randall L. Stephenson.

References

  1. Spangler, Todd (July 28, 2017). "AT&T Confirms John Stankey Will Oversee Time Warner Post-Merger". Variety. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  2. Hagey, Keach; Sharma, Amol; Cimilluca, Dana (October 21, 2016). "AT&T Is in Advanced Talks to Acquire Time Warner". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
  3. Littleton, Cynthia (October 22, 2016). "AT&T Sets $85.4 Billion Time Warner Deal, CEOs Talks 'Unique' Potential of Combination". Variety . Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  4. "AT&T agrees to buy Time Warner for $85.4 billion". USA TODAY. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  5. "AT&T Makes Executive Appointments to Prepare for Time Warner Merger Close". about.att.com. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  6. Stelter, Brian (July 28, 2017). "AT&T names John Stankey to run Time Warner media businesses". CNNMoney. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  7. "John Donovan officially named CEO of AT&T Communications ahead of Time Warner acquisition | FierceWireless". www.fiercewireless.com. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  8. Kang, Cecilia; Merced, Michael J. de la (November 20, 2017). "Justice Department Sues to Block AT&T-Time Warner Merger". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved December 11, 2017.
  9. Foden, Sara; McLaughlin, David; Moritz, Scott (November 20, 2017). "AT&T Sued by U.S. Seeking to Block Merger With Time Warner". Bloomberg. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  10. Littleton, Cynthia (December 22, 2017). "AT&T, Time Warner Extend Merger Agreement Deadline as Trial Looms". Variety. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  11. Johnson, Ted (June 12, 2018). "AT&T-Time Warner Merger Approved". Variety. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
  12. "AT&T to buy cybersecurity firm AlienVault". Reuters. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  13. "AT&T Completes Acquisition of AlienVault". AlienVault Press Release. August 22, 2018.
  14. "AT&T U-verse Timeline" (PDF). AT&T. 2008. Retrieved January 2, 2015.