AT&T: Practical Lessons From the Impossible Breakup

Some 75 years ago, a company of extraordinary size, complexity, and importance was broken up in two short years with minimal adverse effects.  This paper re-examines the great Bell System divestiture with a focus on the process and the factors that made the breakup feasible, fast, and ultimately successful. This case is of particular importance as a counter-example to the frequent claim that such a divestiture cannot and should not be undertaken since it would likely fail and, worse yet, in the