Wall Street Journal on AT&T sale to SBC: Inventions and failure to exploit led to downfall

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article today discussing AT&T’s inventive history.  The article is published on the heels of Monday’s decision by AT&T to be acquired by SBC Communications (originally an offspring of MaBell).

Along with describing several major inventions that came from AT&T (via Bell Labs), the article suggests that the downfall of the company is at least partially attributable to its inability to exploit its inventions (the government break-up didn’t help things, either).

“But AT&T’s monopoly status meant that it rarely exploited its inventions.  Constantly threatened with breakup, the company agreed to put its transistor patents in the public domain and submitted to regulations barring it from businesses that didn’t involve the telephone.  Besides, executives felt little need to seize on the lab achievements since AT&T already enjoyed steady profits from its lock on the phone business.”

A subscription is required to read the article online.  AT&T Inventions Fueled the Tech Boom, and Its Own Fall begins on the first page of today’s paper edition.