Cingular To Acquire AT&T Wireless
By Wireless Week Staff
February 17, 2004
Wireless Week


The bidding war is over and it's official: Vodafone Group Plc is out, and Cingular Wireless will acquire AT&T Wireless to create a company with 46 million customers -- more than rival Verizon Wireless, which has 37.5 million customers.

The $41 billion deal announced this morning calls for shareholders of AT&T Wireless to receive $15 cash per common share. The acquisition is subject to approvals of AT&T Wireless shareholders and federal regulatory authorities. Executives predict the deal will close in late 2004.

Cingular expects to generate more than $1 billion in operating expense and capital expenditure savings in 2006 and more than $2 billion in annual savings starting in 2007.

So, your thoughts? I want to read some of yours first, then I'll post mine.

 

This might be a little off your topic Raul, but is there going to be a "Direct Connect" feature offered by your organization? I've been with Sprint for 5 years now, and am certainly thinking about getting Sprint's "Ready Link" phone and service, but it means I'll have to do another one of their contracts! I've been on the Sprint "One year agreement plan" twice over the 5 years that I've been with them, and their service (while under the agreement) stinks! They claim there is no difference, but the way Customer Service treats you is totally different.

I've been thinking about switching for a while now

To get back on topic - I really don't have any thoughts other than: Hell Yeah to Capitalism

 

i would have liked to have seen Vodafone win.

 

Only thing that makes me happy is that [naive] thanks to all this grand savings to be had in the name of Capitalism...I'm sure to have my monthly bill lowered substantially .

Seriously...Raul...while such acquisitions affect stockholders and employees, I doubt as a customer I will gain one cent worth of benefit from mega-mergers.

- Dave

PS. Definitely (and honestly) Raul, I am curious to read your own thoughts. You have a much closer perspective to offer than I might consider.

 

Raul, now I know why(or at least I think so) those "cancel service" notes took effect. Did it have to do with making the one company look better on paper for the merger? And thanks for fielding my call.

 

Here is Verizon's insider's take on this.

I would have liked to have seen Vodafone win. That way, they had to sell their share of verizon, and we would be fee from them. I think Vodafone did the bidding war to raise the price to makeit overvalued.

You have two companies that did horrible last year combine. The question will be, can two bad companies join to make a good one? or just one big terrible company?

I think it is going to be bad for at least the customers on one side of the merger. The customers that are stuck with the older technology will be forced to deal with upgrading the network and in the meantime, deal with terrible reception.

The industry experts have stated that Verizon Wireless will be in the best position to dominate because instead of spending millions/billions in merger costs, it will spend that money on upgrades and expansions.

Now the big question is, who is going to buy sprint.

 

I totally agree with this...I think the Cingular customers will be a little upset over the time and money that Cingular is going to have to invest to get all of the systems up to spec and play catch up with Verizon. ATT customers will probably be happy...because ATT just had a horrible couple of years of service problems. I still can't believe that customer signup problem last year...wow, talk about a company killer!

Good luck to the new, bigger company though. Hopefully they will keep prices low and drive Verizon to do the same.

 

Hate both companies. All cellphone companies (in the US) suck ass, and are incredibly blatant about cheating any many people as possible out of as much money as possible. A good portion of their revenue comes from them billing customers for service they either never used or never signed up for.

I don't even want to get into all the horror stories of my experiences with Cingular and AT&T, I get pissed off just thinking about it.

I'm currently on Verizon, and right now I think they're the least sucky. At least now I have reception, but they're still arrogantly taking advantage of people. Currently I waiting out a two year contract that they insist I committed to, but I did not.

I hope something happens sometime soon to really shake things up and bankrupt all the US cellphone companies. Some new technology or new company that just destroys them.

No, I'm not bitter.

 

avi4now.

it is terrible to hear about your current dealings with verizon. i can say for certain, that verizon does not want to force you to be in a two year contract if you didn't sign up for one. if you signed up in the stores, they have receipts, over the phone, they have voice recordings. so basically, they can prove if you signed 1 year or 2 year contract. maybe it is a misunderstanding. if you want me to find out for you, PM me your phone, and i can see if i can resolve it for you.

 

im kinda excited ... ive been with suncom (at&t wireless) for close to 5 years now. wondering what kind of changes to expect. ...