Liberty, TCI and AT&T: chronology

Landmarks

This chronology is indicative only. It covers -

Bell antecedents (1843)
AT&T, radio and Hollywood (1913)
TCI beginnings (1956)
Liberty (1990)
absorbed and spun off by AT&T (1999)
beyond Telemundo and Corus (2002)

Context is provided by the broader communications and media timeline on this site.

Antecedents

1843 US Congress supports first electric telegraph in US

1856 Western Union Telegraph founded

1872 Western Electric incorporated by Elisha Gray and Enos Barton

1876 Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates telephjone at Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia

1877 Bell Telephone founded

1880 Jay Gould gains control of Western Union

1880 Bell Canada established, later becomes BCE

1881 Bell Telephone buys Western Electric

1885 Bell establishes American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T)

1899 Bell operating companies transferred to AT&T

1899 Western Electric establishes Nippon Electric

1907 Morgan interests gain control of Bell, Theodore Vail becomes president

1909 AT&T buys controlling interest in Western Union

1913 forced to divest Western Union

AT&T, radio and Hollywood

1913 'Kingsbury Commitment'

1915 first transcontinental telephony in US

1919 Radio Corporation of America (RCA) incorporated to control patents of General Electric, AT&T, Westinghouse and United Fruit

1922 AT&T establishes radio station in New York (later WEAF) and forms Broadcasting Corporation of America

1924 links 16 stations as National Broadcasting System

1925 AT&T opens Bell Laboratories

1925 sells Western Electric's international operations (except Canada) to ITT for US$30m

1926 sells Broadcasting Corporation of America (inc radio stations WEAF and WCAP) to RCA for US$1m

1927 founds ERPI to distribute and service film sound systems

1927 provides commercial trans-atlantic radio-telephone service

1934 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established

1938 AT&T spins off ERPI

1938 network includes 83% of US telephones

1941 US holdings in Nippon Electric confiscated by Japanese government

1948 Bell Labs unveils transistor

1951 AT&T and ITT cross-licence patents

TCI beginnings

1956 cattle-rancher Bob Magness builds cable television system in Memphis, Texas

1957 expands system to Plainview, Texas

1957 AT&T sells Canadian Northern Electric (later Nortel)

1958 Magness sells Texas holdings

1958 Magness, Jack Gallivan, George Hatch and Brian Glasmann establish Western Microwave network in Montana

1962 Magness buys Collier Electric cable group

1968 Western Microwave merges with Community Television cable system and becomes American Tele-Communications, with Western Tele-Communications (WTCI) and Community Tele-Communications (CTCI) subsidiaries

1968 parent company's name changed to Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI). Headquarters moved to Denver, Colorado

1968 FCC allows non-Bell equipment to be conected to AT&T network

1969 Microwave Communications International (MCI) establishes private long distance network

1970 TCI listed on stock exchange and is 10th largest US cable network operator

1972 John Malone joins TCI from electronics manufacturer General Instrument

1973 TCI buys Foote Cone & Belding cable operations

1974 WTCI becomes second-largest US microwave common carrier

1975 CTCI becomes second-largest US cable operator, with 149 systems

1976 Time lends TCI money for terrestrial stations to receive HBO satellite transmissions

1982 TCI becomes largest US cable operator with 2 million subscribers

1982 AT&T has one million employees

1983 Bell Canada becomes Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE)

1983 AT&T buys 25% of Olivetti for US$260m

1984 AT&T local operations spun off as seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), aka 'Baby Bells'

1985 forms Rogers Cantel with Rogers

1987 TCI takes major stake in Turner Broadcasting System

1987 buys much of Westinghouse's Group W cable operations

1988 buys part of Storer cable group from KKR

Liberty

1990 McCaw Cellular Communications acquires 52% interest in LIN Broadcasting

1990 Liberty Media formed as TCI's programming arm

1991 TCI buys Cooke Cablevision

1991 AT&T buys NCR for US$7.4bn

1991 Liberty Media floated, with Malone having 22% of equity (41% of votes)

1991 Liberty becomes partner in SportsChannel Chicago and SportsChannel Pacific

1992 Malone forecasts 500 channel universe in speech as Anaheim

1993 TCI subsidiary QVC makes unsuccessful bid for Paramount, subsequently acquired by Viacom

1993 TCI US$35 billion merger with Bell Atlantic abandoned

1994 TCI and Guinness Peat Group (GPG) pay $117m for Australian satellite tv licence and $216m for microwave tv licences across Australia

1994 McCaw acquired by AT&T for US$11.5bn

1994 LIN broadcasting stations spun off as LIN TV

1995 TCI swaps stake in Turner for 7.5% of Time Warner

1996 death of Magness, succeeded by John Malone

1996 Liberty Satellite established to sell satellite dishes

1996 TCI, Packer and Lenfest (later Comcast subsidiary) participate in unsuccessful rescue of Australis pay tv in Australia

1996 AT&T spins off Bell Laboratories as basis of Lucent Technologies

1996 sells NCR

1996 sells AT&T Capital Corporation (leasing unit) for US$1.8bn

1997 TCI buys newspaper and cable group Kearns-Tribune (which had 7% stake in TCI)

1997 AT&T sells Submarine Systems unit to Tyco for US$850m

1997 Liberty sells Southern Satellite Systems to Time Warner for US$213m

1999 buys 31% stake in Astrolink (promoted as the "first global wireless broadband venture") for US$425m

1999 Liberty Media takes stake in News Corporation

1999 AT&T buys cable group MediaOne (which had absorbed the Providence Journal Co's cable operations) for US$62bn

Absorbed and spun off by AT&T

1999 TCI bought by AT&T for US$54 billion, with Liberty Media combined with TCI Ventures Group (technology investment unit) under effective control by Malone

1999 Liberty Media gains control of TCI Music (renamed Liberty Digital) through share swap of minor internet businesses

2000 Liberty takes stake in Cendant

2000 Liberty sells stake in BET to Viacom for US2 billion

2000 Liberty sells 21% stake in Gemstar-TV Guide International to News, increasing News' holding to 43%

2000 Liberty and Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures take US$190m stake in priceline.com

2000 Liberty buys Video Services Corporation for US$125m

2000 buys 9% stake in IDT

2000 pays US$200m for 5% of Primedia

2000 buys Ascent Entertainment Group

2000 sells Ascent's Denver Nuggets NBA team, Colorado Avalanche team and Denver Pepsi Center for US$450m

2000 Liberty takes direct stake in United Pan-Europe Communications NV, subsidiary of Amsterdam-based UnitedGlobalCom

2000 Liberty buys film processor Todd-AO, renamed Liberty Livewire

2001 Liberty Media spun off by AT&T

2001 Liberty takes US$1.4bn stake in UnitedGlobalCom/United Pan-Europe Communications cable group

2001 Liberty buys nine German regional cable networks from Deutsche Telekom for US$5bn

2001 buys Deutsche Bank's Tele Columbus and SMATcom AG cable subsidiaries for US$1bn

2001 agrees to sell its 20% of USA Networks and 27% stake in EU-based Multithematiques tv group for 3.6% of Vivendi

2001 AT&T spins off AT&T Wireless

2002 AT&T sells AT&T Broadband (ie cable tv assets) to Comcast for value US$47.5bn

2002 Liberty takes controlling stake in OpenTV, buys interest from Naspers' MIH

Beyond Telemundo and Corus

2002 sells stake in Telemundo to NBC

2003 buys 8% of Japanese cable company Jupiter Telecommunications (J-Com) from Sumitomo for $142m, taking stake to 44%

2003 sells Corus Entertainment shares for US$100m

2003 buys outstanding shares of Ascent Media Group

2003 buys remaining 57% of QVC from Comcast for US$7.9bn

2004 AT&T Wireless acquired by Cingular (joint venture of RBOCs SBC and BellSouth) for US$41bn

2004 Liberty completes acquisition of controlling interest in UnitedGlobalCom

2004 increases voting stake in News to 9%, economic interest to 17%, becomes the largest shareholder in News

2004 AT&T announces that it is no longer seeking residential customers

2004 Liberty sells stake in UK cable network TeleWest for £119m

2004 increases voting stake in News to 17%

2005 AT&T agrees to US$16bn takeover by SBC Communications, which later rebadges as AT&T

2005 Liberty Media spins off 50% in cable channel group Discovery Communications to shareholders

2005 agrees to acquisition of SBS by KKR and Permira

2005 agrees to buy Swiss cable operator Cablecom Holdings for US$2.2bn

2005 Liberty Global becomes largest broadband cable operator in Romania through US$407m purchase of Astral Telecom

2005 Liberty Media pays US$194m for 51% of Fun Technologies

2005 Liberty Global sells Norwegian cable arm UPC Norway to Candover for €450m

2006 AT&T bids US$67bn for BellSouth

2006 Liberty Global agrees to sell UPC France, its French business, for €1.25bn in cash

2006 Time Warner buys Liberty Media's 50% in Court TV joint venture for US$735m

2006 Liberty Global buys Czech cable operator Karneval Media from Betbari Holding of the Netherlands for US$415m

2006 Liberty Media agrees to swap stake in News Corp for stake in DirecTV and other assets