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ColinHowell (Offline)
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Posts: 79
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Mountain View, California
07-27-2009, 07:18 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by komitsuki View Post
AT&T used to be the leader of computer technology (not just communications) with the power of developing several computer languages and UNIX. Now it is one of the worst companies in USA within 20 years.
It's not really the same company. The current AT&T was formed in 2005 when SBC Communications bought the old AT&T and decided to adopt their name. SBC was originally one of the Bell System's regional subsidiaries; it became an independent company when the Bell System monopoly was broken up in 1984.

As for the old AT&T that developed UNIX, C, and C++, I would say they were just one of many leaders in computer technology, along with IBM, DEC, etc. And AT&T usually failed to capitalize on its own developments. Anyway, that was all within Bell Labs, which was spun off as part of Lucent Technologies in 1996. Bell Labs still exists, but its now part of Alcatel-Lucent, formed in 2006 by the merger of Lucent with the French company Alcatel.
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