So, it’s a done deal. AT&T is buying Bell South for around $67 billion in an all-stock transaction that would give it sole control over the biggest U.S. wireless operator, Cingular Wireless, and dramatically expand the reach of the nation's largest telecommunications company. (On a personal note, this will now mean I have a new cell phone company… The fourth in three years!) OK, so I have a question. Anyone remember deregulation in 1984? The idea was to break up the monopoly Ma Bell had by breaking it up into eight Baby Bells. How many are left… Three? The AT&T-BellSouth combination is sure to get plenty of attention in Congress. Consumer-activist groups are expected to vociferously oppose the deal as they have been warning that a series of mergers would eventually create a Ma Bell East and a Ma Bell West. Dead right there! Remember how deregulation of the Cable TV business was supposed to drive prices down through competition? I’m still waiting for it to happen. As someone in government once said “That’s the beauty of capitalism, things go up and things go down.” What he failed to mention was that CEO compensation never stops going up, while consumer satisfaction keeps going down!
Remember "Our Man Flint" secret agent of the seventies who fought to stop the world being taken over by an evil force... Which it turned out was AT&T!!!
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