Breaking Bell | The Deal | 4

Business Movers

Wondery

History, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As AT&T moves closer to being forcibly dismantled by the courts, bosses consider a radical alternative. But even when they press the button for the nuclear option, there’s no guarantee that their plan will succeed.

Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletter

Listen to Business Movers on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season. Unlock exclusive early access by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial today by visiting https://wondery.com/links/business-movers/ now.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Want to get more from business movers?
0:02.2	Subscribe to Wondry Plus for early access to new episodes,
0:05.7	ad-free listening, and exclusive content you can't find anywhere else.
0:09.6	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:13.0	OneRoury.
0:15.0	Music It's December 30, 1981, the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
0:34.5	In a conference room, Howard Treenance, AT&T's 57-year-old general counsel, reads through a series of
0:40.5	documents with a pensive look on his face. A few weeks earlier, Howard approached the Department
0:45.6	of Justice with a plan to settle a federal antitrust lawsuit filed against AT&T. The two sides
0:51.5	have tried to negotiate similar deals before, but this is the first time that
0:55.3	AT&T has put forward a plan that would cause its own breakup. Today is the day that the settlement
1:00.6	is supposed to be finalized. Howard pauses, staring at a page he doesn't recognize.
1:06.1	Now, what's this? Howard slides the paper over to Department of Justice lawyer Ron Carr.
1:12.9	Appendix B, that's just a clause about competitor firms, infrastructure parity. We've been over this.
1:18.6	No, we haven't.
1:20.0	Are you sure? I'm almost positive we have. Ron, I promise you we haven't. I would not have missed this.
1:25.2	The new regional operating companies will have to completely change their engineering, build their own network from scratch, and we'll have to
1:31.4	reconfigure ours. This is crazy. We're leveling the playing field, Howard, making sure that
1:36.1	AT&T doesn't have a systemic advantage over competition, given the fact that you already have
1:40.9	infrastructure. Oh, this won't work, Ron, it's over the top.
1:45.6	That's not the way we see it.
1:47.8	Who's we? Was this Baxter's idea?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.