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AT&T moving headquarters to Dallas from San Antonio(Dallas Morning News, The (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jun. 28--AT&T Inc. is moving its headquarters to Dallas from San Antonio, the telecommunications company said Friday afternoon. AT&T said the move will start immediately and be completed by the end of the year. The company will be moving to existing AT&T offices at 208 South Akard St. in downtown Dallas. That won't necessarily be AT&T's permanent home in the Dallas area, though. "We're continuing to evaluate our long-term real estate needs in the Dallas area," said AT&T spokesman Walt Sharp. About 700 of the company's nearly 6,000 San Antonio-based workers are expected to move as well. Those workers making the move are mostly corporate staff, with the technical positions remaining in San Antonio. AT&T, now the largest telecom company in the world, said the move to Dallas makes sense in light of the company's growth. "We're a growing global company with customers and operations around the world," Randall Stephenson, AT&T's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "Being headquartered in Dallas will benefit our long-term growth prospects and human resources needs, and our ability to operate more efficiently, better serve customers and expand the business in the future." AT&T will also benefit from the concentration of telecommunications engineers and experts and the cluster of tech firms based in the so-called Telecom Corridor area in Richardson. AT&T is the most recent big telecom firm to bring its headquarters to the Dallas area. Last December, Research in Motion Ltd., the Ontario-based maker of the popular BlackBerry mobile e-mail device, chose Irving for the site of its new U.S. headquarters. Dallas mayor Tom Leppert said Friday that AT&T had been in discussions for about a year to move to Dallas, but it wasn't clear until the past few days that the relocation was certain. "It's a great victory," Mr. Leppert said. "It's absolutely a big deal. It shows that downtown Dallas is a great place to work and this is a great place to live." Mr. Sharp said that AT&T had 60,000 employees when it moved to San Antonio in 1992, and now has about 310,000 workers around the globe, while revenue has grown from less than $10 billion to nearly $120 billion. By revenue, AT&T will be the second-largest company based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area behind Exxon Mobil Corp. When the move is complete, AT&T will have about 14,400 workers in the Dallas area. AT&T is making the move as it gears up for the exclusive launch of Apple Corp.'s much anticipated new iPhone on July 11. Staff writer Dave Levinthal contributed to this report. To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dallasnews.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Dallas Morning News Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |