Meantime it is not clear that AT&T Co would be home free in its proposed acquisition of NCR Corp even if were able to persuade the Daytoner to negotiate the friendly merger that it wants. Following NCR lobbying, the majority of the congressmen representing Ohio have mobilised on NCR’s team and sent letters to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and to the attorney general highlighting the potential anti-competitive repercussions of the takeover. They suggest to the attorney general that acquisition of NCR would AT&T the potential to develop an unfair advantage in financial services if AT&T’s Universal Card and dominant long-distance business were to be combined with NCR’s strength in automatic teller machines and credit card verification equipment. As for the Federal Communications Commission, it is being asked to consider the potential effect of the deal on long-distance telephone rates AT&T has already lost one fortune in the computer industry, and many fear that with NCR it would soon lose another one.
