AT&T Wireless

AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. was, before October 26, 2004, the third largest wireless telephone carrier in the United States, based in Redmond, Washington, and trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol, AWE. Formerly part of AT&T Corp. more...

, as of January 1, 2004, the largest single shareholder of AT&T Wireless was Japan's NTT DoCoMo.

On October 26, 2004, AT&T Wireless completed a merger with Cingular to become the largest wireless carrier in the United States. Under the agreement, only the Cingular brand would survive. On November 16, 2004, every single AT&T Wireless store was rechristened under the Cingular banner.

In late 2005, SBC (the majority partner in Cingular) aquired AT&T Corp., and renamed the combined company AT&T, Inc. There has been some speculation that the carrier services would be once again marketed under the AT&T name.

Acquisition history

On February 13, 2004, AT&T Wireless accepted bids for acquisition of the wireless company. The two top bidders were British carrier Vodafone and American competitor Cingular. Cingular was owned by two Baby Bells; 40% by BellSouth and 60% by SBC Communications, Inc. SBC would later acquire AT&T, Inc in 2006 and adopt the latter's name. Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless and had it succeeded in the bid, AT&T Wireless's assets would then have been sold to Verizon Wireless. Cingular emerged victorious February 17 by agreeing to pay more than $41 billion, more than twice the company's recent trading value, to acquire AT&T Wireless. Some analysts have said that although Vodafone, the world's largest mobile operator, was unsuccessful in acquiring the company, it was nonetheless successful in forcing a competitor to overpay for the aquisition of AT&T Wireless.

The sale received US government approval and closed on October 26, creating the nation's largest wireless carrier, overtaking Verizon Wireless. The AT&T Wireless brand was retired by Cingular on April 26, 2005, six months after the close of the merger. This was per a pre spin-off agreement with AT&T Corp. that stated that if AT&T Wireless was to be bought by a competitor, the rights to the name AT&T Wireless and the use of the AT&T name in wireless phone service would revert back to AT&T Corp.

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