Episode 2 of 2

Asset Transfer to AT&T

When: December 30, 1899
Where: Massachusetts/New York
Part of: AT&T incorporated as a subsidiary of American Bell Telephone

American Bell transferred its assets to AT&T on December 30, 1899, making AT&T the head of the Bell System.

This transfer was necessitated by restrictive Massachusetts laws limiting capitalization. By moving assets to the New York-incorporated subsidiary, AT&T gained control over Western Electric, Bell Laboratories, and other holdings, effectively becoming the parent company of the Bell System.

Sources

Bell Telephone Company Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-14
AT&T Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-03

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.