What company resulted from the 2006 merger of BellSouth and AT&T?

The company resulting from the 2006 merger of BellSouth and AT&T was AT&T Inc.

AT&T Inc., then known as SBC Communications, acquired BellSouth in a transaction completed in December 2006. The deal reunited BellSouth with the AT&T brand and gave the combined company full control of Cingular Wireless, which had previously been jointly owned by BellSouth and SBC.

After the merger, Cingular Wireless was rebranded AT&T Mobility. The transaction strengthened AT&T’s fixed-line, broadband, wireless, and business communications operations across the United States.

This history is easy to confuse because the names changed repeatedly. SBC Communications had acquired the former AT&T Corp. in 2005 and adopted the AT&T name; it then acquired BellSouth in 2006. That sequence is distinct from Bell Atlantic’s 2000 merger with GTE, which created Verizon Communications.