Atomic Mongoose
11-21-2005, 09:47 AM
Cingular will be sold under name of AT&T
By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — SBC (SBC), which closed its merger with AT&T on Friday, plans to sell Cingular Wireless under the fabled AT&T name, Ed Whitacre, the chairman and CEO of the combined company, has confirmed to USA TODAY.
SBC will sell Cingular Wireless under AT&T.
Cingular, the USA's No. 1 wireless company, is 60% owned by the new AT&T; BellSouth controls 40%.
SBC recently said it would adopt AT&T's name, putting to rest questions about what would happen to the famous name. But speculation had also swirled about what would happen to the Cingular brand name once the AT&T deal closed.
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."
Whitacre said AT&T might still use the Cingular name in some markets. But the overall plan, he said, is to use the AT&T name to market all the company's products — local, long-distance, wireless, data and video.
He conceded that the move could strain AT&T's relationship with BellSouth. The two carriers have worked to promote Cingular as a national brand. But for now at least, BellSouth isn't resisting.
BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher says anything that boosts Cingular's revenue is good for BellSouth. "This is not an issue," he said Sunday.
Whitacre also sees a silver lining, of sorts, for BellSouth. If the switch to the AT&T name helps attract customers to the wireless company, he noted, both carriers will benefit.
The Cingular decision is the first of what will likely be a string of strategic changes for the new AT&T. As a regional carrier, SBC focused mostly on its 13-state footprint. Now that it's tethered to AT&T, it has a global reach.
For SBC, getting to the finish line was a major achievement. The merger was announced Jan. 31. Since then, SBC and AT&T have worked to earn the blessing of state and federal regulators.
Regulators in California — the last state — approved the AT&T-SBC merger Friday, allowing the deal to close. SBC, as expected, promptly adopted the AT&T name.
AT&T's logo has been rejiggered to give it a 3-D effect. The actual name will look different, too. Instead of using capital letters, AT&T's name in marketing materials will be spelled with lower-case letters: at&t. The corporate name — AT&T Inc. — will retain the capital letters.
The overhaul is aimed at freshening up the brand, Whitacre says. He says the pint-sized letters, reminiscent of alphabet soup, were a tough sell internally.
"We agonized over the letters," says Whitacre, who made the final call on the name and the logo.
He says marketing people finally convinced him that the new look was more evocative of the Internet generation: "They tell me it's more trendy and modern."
One thing that won't change is AT&T's long-standing trading symbol: "T." The merged company will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange under that symbol on Dec. 1.
USAToday Article (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/business/2005-11-20-cingular-att_x.htm)
The New at&t Website (http://www.sbc.com/gen/landing-pages?pid=7394)
*sigh* This is going to be REAL fun for my coworkers and I to deal with. As if explaining to senior citizens the concept of migration from AT&T Wireless to Cingular wasn't hard enough...
My company is having an identity crisis.
By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — SBC (SBC), which closed its merger with AT&T on Friday, plans to sell Cingular Wireless under the fabled AT&T name, Ed Whitacre, the chairman and CEO of the combined company, has confirmed to USA TODAY.
SBC will sell Cingular Wireless under AT&T.
Cingular, the USA's No. 1 wireless company, is 60% owned by the new AT&T; BellSouth controls 40%.
SBC recently said it would adopt AT&T's name, putting to rest questions about what would happen to the famous name. But speculation had also swirled about what would happen to the Cingular brand name once the AT&T deal closed.
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."
Whitacre said AT&T might still use the Cingular name in some markets. But the overall plan, he said, is to use the AT&T name to market all the company's products — local, long-distance, wireless, data and video.
He conceded that the move could strain AT&T's relationship with BellSouth. The two carriers have worked to promote Cingular as a national brand. But for now at least, BellSouth isn't resisting.
BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher says anything that boosts Cingular's revenue is good for BellSouth. "This is not an issue," he said Sunday.
Whitacre also sees a silver lining, of sorts, for BellSouth. If the switch to the AT&T name helps attract customers to the wireless company, he noted, both carriers will benefit.
The Cingular decision is the first of what will likely be a string of strategic changes for the new AT&T. As a regional carrier, SBC focused mostly on its 13-state footprint. Now that it's tethered to AT&T, it has a global reach.
For SBC, getting to the finish line was a major achievement. The merger was announced Jan. 31. Since then, SBC and AT&T have worked to earn the blessing of state and federal regulators.
Regulators in California — the last state — approved the AT&T-SBC merger Friday, allowing the deal to close. SBC, as expected, promptly adopted the AT&T name.
AT&T's logo has been rejiggered to give it a 3-D effect. The actual name will look different, too. Instead of using capital letters, AT&T's name in marketing materials will be spelled with lower-case letters: at&t. The corporate name — AT&T Inc. — will retain the capital letters.
The overhaul is aimed at freshening up the brand, Whitacre says. He says the pint-sized letters, reminiscent of alphabet soup, were a tough sell internally.
"We agonized over the letters," says Whitacre, who made the final call on the name and the logo.
He says marketing people finally convinced him that the new look was more evocative of the Internet generation: "They tell me it's more trendy and modern."
One thing that won't change is AT&T's long-standing trading symbol: "T." The merged company will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange under that symbol on Dec. 1.
USAToday Article (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/business/2005-11-20-cingular-att_x.htm)
The New at&t Website (http://www.sbc.com/gen/landing-pages?pid=7394)
*sigh* This is going to be REAL fun for my coworkers and I to deal with. As if explaining to senior citizens the concept of migration from AT&T Wireless to Cingular wasn't hard enough...
My company is having an identity crisis.