Every "divestiture" had an adverse effect on critical mass. The split between AT&T and Bellcore was a big hurt.
The split between AT&T and Lucent was another. When I joined the Labs in 1973, it was an honor to work there.
I don't see anything special about any of the remaining fragments, and they seem to be determined to make
themselves less and less attractive. ("Come work for AT&T instead of Google and we'll allow you to spend
several weeks each year training for strike duty for which you'll have to be prepared to show up on 48 hours notice,
and, by the way, that vacation time you cannot take because you have to have to remain available cannot be
carried over.") -- jpl