General Telephone Corporation
of USA
1933 The Associated Telephone Utilities went into receivership. The company was reorganized that same year
1935 Renamed as General Telephone Corporation, operating 12 newly consolidated telephone companies.
Post-WWII General Telephone reactivated an acquisitions programme that had been dormant for more than a decade and purchased 118,000 telephone lines between 1946 and 1950.
1950 General Telephone purchased its first telephone-equipment manufacturing subsidiary, Leich Electric Company.
c.1952 General Telephone's assets included 15 telephone companies operating in 20 states.
1955 General Telephone had grown into the largest independent telephone company outside the Bell System.
1959 General Telephone merged with Sylvania Electric Products; the parent company's name was changed to General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (GT&E). The merger gave Sylvania--a leader in such industries as lighting, television and radio, and chemistry and metallurgy--the needed capital to expand. For General Telephone, the merger meant the added benefit of Sylvania's extensive research and development capabilities in the field of electronics.
Further acquisitions followed.
1980 GT&E sold its consumer electronics businesses, including the accompanying brand names of Philco and Sylvania.
1982 the company adopted the name GTE Corporation and formed GTE Mobilnet Incorporated, to handle the company's entrance into the new cellular telephone business.
1983 GTE sold its electrical equipment, brokerage information services, and cable television equipment businesses. That same year, Automatic Electric and Lenkurt were combined as GTE Network Systems.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Company history