40 Years Bold

Can the 37-Year-Old Dissolution of AT&T Teach Us Anything About a Big-Tech Breakup?

A look back at Adweek’s coverage of a monopoly that really did get split up

1982-breakup-of-att-content-2019 — AT&T's last annual meeting, a few months before the breakup took effect on Jan. 1, 1984.Getty Images

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren made headlines last week on the heels of her March 8 call for the breakup of Google, Facebook and Amazon. In a Medium post, the presidential candidate went so far as to call the companies monopolies. It’s only the latest cry of foul against big tech, and it’s helped fuel much recent speculation that the tech giants could be heading for dismemberment.

Technology mavens wringing their hands over this calls to mind the last time the country was at a crossroads this fraught—37 years ago, when the government actually did bust up a monopoly: AT&T.

Adweek,