The birth of AT&T

AT&T can trace its root back to Alexander Graham Bell. American Telephone & Telegraph Company was founded after Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone in 1876. It was created to facilitate the growth of the long-distance telephone business.

AT&T had been established in 1885 and granted a monopoly for phone service in the United States.  The company opened its first long distance line, which connected Philadelphia and New York.

AT&T established a research lab, Bell Laboratories. Bell labs made major invention, including transistor in the 1940s.

AT &T became the parent company of the Bell System in 1899, after the company acquired the assets of American Bell Telephone, thus becoming AT&T Inc.

However, it suffered when the economy turned down after the turn of the 20th century and its debt levels mounted.

J.P Morgan and other investment bankers moved in to take control of the company, as it had with many other companies it combined during the first merger wave.
The birth of AT&T