Can AT&T and Verizon escape managed decline?

IN THE EARLY 1980s AT&T Corporation, then America’s telecoms monopoly, was the darling of Wall Street. As big tech of the day, it was the mightiest company in the S&P 500, accounting for 5.5% of the blue-chip index’s total market value. Today its largest descendants, AT&T and Verizon, can only dream of their parent’s former glory. The two companies make up less than 0.7% of the index—and falling. Their combined market capitalisation of $250bn is roughly half what it was at the start of 2020; the S&P 500 is up by more than two-fifths since then (see chart).