>>3317303
>Verizon
In 1984, the Justice Department of the United States mandated AT&T Corporation to break up the Bell System and split into seven companies, called "Baby Bells". One of the baby bells, Bell Atlantic,[7] came into existence in 1984 consisting of the separate operating companies New Jersey Bell, Bell of Pennsylvania, Diamond State Telephone, and C&P Telephone, with a footprint from New Jersey to Virginia. This company would later become Verizon.
As part of a rebranding of the Baby Bells in the mid-1990s, all of Bell Atlantic's operating companies assumed the holding company's name. In 1997, Bell Atlantic expanded into New York and the New England states by merging with fellow Baby Bell NYNEX. Although Bell Atlantic was the surviving company name, the merged company moved its headquarters from Philadelphia to NYNEX's old headquarters in New York City. In 2000, Bell Atlantic acquired GTE, which operated telecommunications companies across most of the rest of the country that was not already in Bell Atlantic's footprint. Bell Atlantic, the surviving entity, changed its name to "Verizon", a portmanteau of veritas (Latin for "truth") and horizon.[