 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Cable television |
| Predecessor | US West thenAmerican Telephone and Telegraph Company as AT&T Broadband |
| Founded | 1998; 27 years ago (1998) |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Parent | Comcast Corporation |
Comcast MO Group, Inc. (formerlyMediaOne Group, Inc.) is a telecommunications company created byUS West Inc. in 1998 following US West's acquisition of Boston-based Continental Cable. The company combined Continental with Wometco/GTC, which US West had previously acquired. Wometco/GTC had adopted the MediaOne name a year earlier. Media One Group was acquired in 2000 byAT&T Broadband, which was subsequently acquired byComcast in 2002.
US West Inc. was a regional holding company formed from the combination of threeBell Operating Companies: TheMountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company (orMountain Bell, based inDenver, Colorado);Northwestern Bell, based inOmaha, Nebraska; andPacific Northwest Bell, based inSeattle, Washington. On January 1, 1991, Northwestern Bell and Pacific Northwest Bell were legally merged into Mountain Bell, which was renamed US West Communications, Inc.
In order to segregate its regulatedtelephone service from its unregulatedcable TV businesses, US West Inc separated their assets and businesses into two groups named US West Communications Group and US West Media Group and issued separate tracking shares for each company. These tracking shares reflected results and prospects of the group's business, and would be traded separately. The Media Group's ticker symbol was "UMG" while the Communications group continued with the "USW" ticker.
In 1995, the cable modem service was later renamed to MediaOne Express. The company completed a co-branding deal withTime Warner's cable modem Internet business under which MediaOne would becomeMediaOne RoadRunner.
In 1996, US West acquiredContinental Cablevision for $5.3 billion in stock and renamed itMediaOne (initially namedMedia1).Amos B. Hostetter, Jr., a founder and former chairman and CEO of Continental resigned after US West moved the company's headquarters from Boston, Massachusetts.[1]
In time the service also included pay-per-view, and a self-branded high-speedcable modem internet service named Hiway1 (Highway One). Hiway1 was an early provider of the cable modem technology.[2] Most early-period modems for the service were created by the manufacturer LANcity (Bay Networks).
In 1998, US West Inc spun off its telephone and non-telephone assets into two separate companies. US West, Inc., changed its name to MediaOne Group, Inc. and theUS West Communications Group and directory publishing divisionUS West Dex were transferred to a new entity that took the US West, Inc. name. The "new" US West was then spun off to shareholders of Communications Group stock. The split became effective June 12, 1998.[3]Chuck Lillis becameCEO of MediaOne Group.
In 1999,Comcast first made a bid for MediaOne. Comcast said they would pay $60 billion and assume all of MediaOne's debt. On May 6, 1999, AT&T, not wanting to be outdone promised about $62 billion instead, and paid a break up fee of $1.5 billion allowing MediaOne to be purchased by AT&T.[4][5]
MediaOne RoadRunner et al. next became AT&T branded. The portion which ran television was "AT&T Cable Television", another part for Internet became known as "AT&T Broadband Internet" and the third became "AT&T Digital Phone". The buyout of MediaOne by AT&T happened close on the heels of AT&T's purchase of cable companyTCI. That buyout by TCI already made AT&T the largest cable company, and MediaOne only served to increase their margin of leadership.
In the summer of 2000, AT&T Broadband purchased the cable television system serving the city ofBoston, then controlled by New York-basedCablevision, for $1.1 billion in stock, cash and a trade of other cable systems. The deal effectively made the Boston/New England region MediaOne's largest clustered market. In exchange for the Boston system, Cablevision also received several of AT&T Broadband's systems which served suburban New York communities.[6]
AT&T was unable to make the merger work for many reasons, and split the company into three separate companies:AT&T Corp. continued and retained its long-distance business,AT&T Wireless Services was spun off as a public company, andAT&T Broadband was purchased byComcast. At this point, MediaOne became known asComcast MO Group, Inc.
Many customers criticized AT&T over the transitioning from Mediaone.net to attbroadband.com and subsequently attbi.com email addresses.[7][8] A final subsequent change from attbi.com to Comcast.net also drew further criticism from the company's longest customers who may have gone through the several prior email changes.[9][10]
The main markets & regions for MediaOne were:[11]
Besides theUnited States, MediaOne Group also had several smaller business operations in headed by CEO Ron Timmons:
Almost all of MediaOne's international holdings were sold off to satisfy regulators for the merger with AT&T.
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