Bell Atlantic-TCI

Bell Atlantic-TCI

1993-94

In 1993, in what was then the largest planned corporate merger, Bell Atlantic, a phone company serving northeastern U.S. states, agreed to pay $33 billion for the nation's largest cable-TV company, Tele-Communications. The deal collapsed in early the next year as John Malone, then-CEO of TCI, and Raymond W. Smith, head of Bell Atlantic, found their corporate cultures clashed. Bell Atlantic is now part of Verizon Communications (VZ). TCI was ultimately was acquired by AT&T (T) in 1999 and sold to Comcast (CMCSA) in 2001.