User:XyZAn/sandbox/att

The Break-up
The United States Justice Department opened the case United States v. AT&T in 1974. This was prompted by a suspicion that AT&T was using monopoly profits from its Western Electric subsidiary to subsidize the cost of its network, a violation of anti-trust law. A settlement to this case was finalized in 1982, leading to the division of the company on January 1, 1984 into seven Regional Bell Operating Companies, commonly known as Baby Bells. These companies were:


 * Ameritech, acquired by SBC in 1999, now part of AT&T Inc.
 * Bell Atlantic (now Verizon Communications), which acquired GTE in 2000
 * BellSouth, acquired by AT&T Inc. in 2006
 * NYNEX, acquired by Bell Atlantic in 1996, now part of Verizon Communications
 * Pacific Telesis, acquired by SBC in 1997, now part of AT&T Inc.
 * Southwestern Bell (later SBC, now AT&T Inc.), which acquired AT&T Corp. in 2005
 * US West, acquired by Qwest in 2000, which in turn was acquired by CenturyLink in 2011