Will AT&T disappear forever?
That was one of the questions in Denver on Thursday as AT&T shareholders sat down at the Colorado Convention Center for what probably will be AT&T’s final shareholder meeting.
Shareholders overwhelmingly approved the $16 billion acquisition by SBC, which means that AT&T will be swallowed by one of its offspring from the 1984 breakup of the Ma Bell system.
But AT&T’s logo may live on.
“It would be a huge mistake to let that logo go,” said AT&T network technician Bruce Kelly, who pointed to the globe- shaped logo on AT&T’s building across the street from the convention center. “We are more recognizable than SBC.”
AT&T, incorporated in 1885, was one of the top corporate brands in the world throughout much of the 20th century. It had a monopoly over phone service in the U.S. until 1984 and grew to nearly 1 million employees.
But technological change, deregulation and management missteps caused AT&T’s business – and brand – to slowly wither.
In 2000, AT&T was still within the top 10 world brands with an estimated value of $25.5 billion, according to the annual Interbrand Best Global Brands Report. But three years later, AT&T fell off the list of the top 100 global brands, slipping even below Jack Daniels, which had a value of $1.6 billion.
AT&T chief executive David Dorman expressed hope at Thursday’s meeting that the AT&T brand may still be rescued when the SBC-AT&T merger closes late this year or early next.
SBC chief executive Ed Whitacre “has deep respect for the brand and what it means, and it will play a role prominently in the new company,” Dorman said.
An SBC filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in February said the company would use focus groups and other market research methods to “make a thoughtful and strategic decision” with the new company’s brands. But Whitacre also said, during an interview the same month with the Los Angeles Times, that “people under 30 don’t know what AT&T is.”
SBC’s decision will not be easy.
“AT&T is one of the great brands in the American lexicon,” said Tom Douglis of Monigle Associates, a Denver-based corporate brand consulting firm. “But SBC has to look long and hard as to whether it will fit their long-term brand planning.”
SBC’s logo is not well-known outside of the 13, mainly Midwestern, states where it provides local-phone service.
SBC, meanwhile, is unlikely to change Cingular, its cellphone brand, because SBC shares ownership of Cingular with BellSouth. Cingular also has emerged as a strong brand among the 20-something wireless generation, Douglis said.
But AT&T stands for quality and reliability among its remaining base of global telecom customers, as well as older consumers, according to Jim Andrew, vice president of carrier practice for the Adventis consultancy in Boston.
“It makes sense for SBC to seriously look at keeping the AT&T brand for the business services at least,” said Andrew. “But ideally you have one brand and one image in the eyes of the customers.”
Staff writer Ross Wehner can be reached at 303-820-1503 or rwehner@denverpost.com.
