The world of corporate matchmaking is a bizarre and strange place that I don’t understand entirely except maybe the bottom line, which is to make a buck. Wikipedia does the best job explaining the event.
Formerly a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth, Cingular Wireless soon acquired the old AT&T Wireless; SBC later acquired the original AT&T and rebranded as "the new AT&T". Cingular became wholly-owned by the new AT&T in December 2006 as a result of AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth. ~wikipedia
Sometimes all this back and forth seems a bit sinister. I don’t always trust these big corporate moves, but I think that stems from my lack of understanding. It seems they are centralizing the service with one company and eliminating the competition all in one swoop. Will this be good for customer or bad? Your guess is as good as mine… probably better.
Editor’s Note: Although the Cingular / AT&T merger happened months ago, their stores have only recently been updated to reflect the new corporate image. I’m not sure about how I feel about an orange AT&T, but Cingular spent a lot of money building up their brand, so I don’t blame them for trying to retain some of the recognition.
