Coll - The Deal of the Century

Praise for The Deal of the Century

Superbly reported and smoothly written.

The Washington Post Book World

Colorful and telling rich, intricate and convincing this is a wonderful book. While undoubtedly an edifying account of a seminal antitrust case, The Deal of the Century also manages to be a moving story.

The New York Times Book Review

Read this book and learn how the world works.

Andrew Tobias

An excellent behind-the-scenes lookexposing warts on both sides of the caseat the legal wranglings between AT&T and the government.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Crafted with color and drama this solid account of the complex events leading to the 1982 AT&T breakup is hard to put down.

Library Journal

Admirably balanced and consistently engrossing A near-definitive reconstruction of this consequential conflict.

Kirkus Reviews

In The Deal of the Century, author Steve Coll has done a remarkable thing. He has taken the story of the breakup of the Bell System in January 1984 and made it readable. By telling it through the personalities of the bureaucrats, lawyers, politicians and executives involved, Mr. Coll avoids getting mired in technical and legal jargon For that alone, the book is worth reading.

Wall Street Journal

This expos lends welcome clarity to the mass confusion that accompanied the divestment of AT&T Colls penetrating analysis of this shameful courtroom and boardroom drama evidences the fact that both the general public and the judiciary were exploited and duped by all factions A legion of justifiably angry consumers will applaud this comprehensive, digestible account of the dismantlement of the monopoly that worked.

Booklist

The Deal of the Century

The Breakup of AT&T

Steve Coll

Acknowledgments

This is a book above all about people, and thus it belongs first to my sourcesthe lawyers, executives, politicians, and government officials who opened their professional and sometimes their personal lives to me without any guarantees about my intentions or motives. To list the names of those who were especially helpful would betray their trust; they know who they are, and I am grateful to them. And of course, none of them bears any responsibility for what I have written.

This is also a book about institutions, and on that score, too, I count myself fortunate. Confronted with my requests for interviews and information, AT&T might easily have tried to deny me access. Instead, the company was courageous enough to open its doors, albeit cautiously and with one foot on the jamb. I found the professionalism and courtesy of its representatives, despite their concern about what I was after, to be exceptional among the large corporations I have dealt with as a reporter. Paula Horii in the media relations department was particularly helpful in arranging interviews and channeling information. Similarly, the Justice Department responded to my various inquiries, including a request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act, with speed and thoroughness unusual among federal bureaucracies.

I owe a great deal to the magazine and newspaper editors who occasionally employed, always supported, and invariably taught me during the more than two-year life of this project. They include Scott Kaufer, Cal Fentress, Tom Bates, and Matt Smith at California magazine; George Gendren, Bo Burlingham, Gene Stone, and Steve Solomon at Inc. magazine; and Bob Thompson, Mary Hadar, Ellen Edwards, Janet Duckworth, and Len Downie at the Washington Post.

The late John Cushman, who once told me that he became a literary agent because he liked to go home every night and clean the blood out of my teeth, favored this book with one of his last bursts of brilliance. Tom Stewart and Susan Leon at Atheneum made possible what Cushman began. And my current agent, Melanie Jackson, has done much to improve the quality of my professional life.

I was assisted in my research by the staffs at George Washington Universitys Gelman Library for telecommunications; the University of Southern Californias Crocker business library; the University of California at Los Angeles several business, law, and communications libraries; the AT&T legal document room in Washington, D.C.; the Library of Congress law and periodical reading rooms; and by the staff at the National Archives. The clerks in the U.S. District Court filing room in Washington, D.C., went beyond the call of duty to locate missing documents and to arrange for copying services.

Chuck Jensvold, Martin Burns, Dan Leighton, Sue Horton, Rich Bonin, Anne Ball, Tensi Whelan, and Joel Kotkin helped me find materials I would otherwise have missed.

My family saw me through, especially my wife Susan, who for so long was the only one who understood what I was doing. Without her, I would never have finished.

Steve Coll

Gaithersburg, Maryland

March 1986

for Susan and Alexandra

Contents

Competitioneffective, aggressive competitionmeans strife, industrial warfare; it means contention; it oftentimes means taking advantage of or resorting to any means that the conscience of the contestants or the degree of the enforcement of the laws will permit.

Theodore Vail

President, American

Telephone & Telegraph

Company

1910

The Shape of American Telephone and Telegraph Co. on May 8, 1972

Local Operating Companies

Bell Telephone Co. of Nevada

Illinois Bell Telephone Co.

Indiana Bell Telephone Co.

Michigan Bell Telephone Co.

New England Telephone and Telegraph Co.

New Jersey Bell Telephone Co.

Northwestern Bell Telephone Co.

Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Co.

Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co.

South Central Bell Telephone Co.

Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co.

Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.

The Bell Telephone Co. of Pennsylvania

The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co.

The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. of Maryland

The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. of Virginia

The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. of West Virginia

The Diamond State Telephone Co.

The Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Co.

The New York Telephone Co.

The Ohio Bell Telephone Co.