MA BELL RETURNING: AT&T Inc. says it will acquire smaller rival BellSouth Corp. for $67 billion in stock, substantially expanding the country’s largest telecommunications company by the number of customers served.

WORKERS AND CUSTOMERS: The merged company would employ more than 316,000 people to serve 70 million local-line phone customers, 54 million cell-phone users and 10 million broadband subscribers.

WHAT’S NEXT: The Cingular brand, already jointly owned by the two companies, would be phased out in favor of the AT&T brand.

By The Associated Press