JUNE 23, 2000 AT&T redesigns basic calling plan. OCTOBER 25, 2000 Armstrong announces restructuring plans. NOVEMBER 28, 2000 David Dorman is named president of AT&T. DECEMBER 20, 2000 AT&T board cuts quarterly dividend by 83 percent. JULY 8, 2001 Comcast makes unsolicited bid for AT&T cable business. Selective Chronology 271 JULY 9, 2001 AT&T Wireless completes its separation from AT&T. JULY 18, 2001 AT&T board unanimously rejects Comcast bid for its cable assets. SEPTEMBER 28, 2001 Excite@Home files for bankruptcy. OCTOBER 16, 2001 AT&T and BT agree to dissolve their global joint venture. DECEMBER 19, 2001 AT&T accepts Comcast's bid for its cable business. FEBRUARY 21, 2002 Dorman and Noski are named to AT&T board. MAY 23, 2002 Noski announces that he will leave AT&T following restructuring. JULY 17, 2002 AT&T board names David Dorman next CEO of AT&T. NOVEMBER 18, 2002 AT&T Broadband merges with Comcast. Arm- strong era ends. This page intentionally left blank Notes Introduction I. Alvin Von Auw, Heritage and Destiny: Reflections on the Bell System in Transition (New York: Praeger, 1983), p. 397. 2. The statue's original name was "The Genius of Electricity," but it was dubbed "The Spirit of Communications" when AT&T began putting its picture on the company's phone books. Evelyn Beatrice Longman (1874-1954) won a competition to design the statue, and it was placed atop I95 Broadway in October 1916, when both Western Union and AT&T made their headquarters there. It weighs sixteen tons and is made of gilded bronze. 3. Grasso stepped down as CEO of the New York Stock Exchange following revelations that he had engineered a pay package of about $180 million for himself. 4. Welch was quoted as follows by the Corporate Library (www.the corporatelibrary.com) after the revelation that GE would continue to pay for many of his living expenses during retirement: "One thing I learned during my years as CEO is that perception mat- ters. And in these times when public confidence and trust have been shaken, I've learned the har