corporation former type public industry telecommunications fate merged with bell atlantic successor verizon communications founded 1918 defunct 2000 headquarters stamford connecticut u.s. products telephone internet television parent verizon 2000 present subsidiaries gte southwest verizon california verizon florida verizon north verizon south puerto rico telephone hawaiian telephone website gte.com gte corporation formerly general telephone & electric corporation 1955 1982 1 was the largest independent telephone company in the united states during the days of the bell system . the company operated from 1926 with roots tracing further back than that until 2000 when it merged with bell atlantic ; the combined company took the name verizon . originally founded as associated telephone utilities it went bankrupt in 1933 during the great depression and reorganized as general telephone in 1934 . 2 in 1991 it acquired the third largest independent continental telephone contel . 3 they also owned automatic electric a telephone equipment supplier similar in many ways to western electric and sylvania lighting the only non communications oriented company under gte ownership . gte provided local telephone service to a large number of areas of the u.s. through operating companies much as american telephone & telegraph provided local telephone service through its 22 bell operating companies . the company also acquired bbn planet one of the earliest internet service providers in 1997 . that division became known as gte internetworking and was later spun off into the independent company genuity a name recycled from another internet company gte acquired in 1997 to satisfy federal communications commission fcc requirements regarding the gte bell atlantic merger that created verizon . 4 gte operated in canada via large interests in subsidiary companies such as bc tel and quebec t l phone . when foreign ownership restrictions on telecommunications companies were introduced gte s ownership was grandfathered . when bc tel merged with telus the name given the privatized alberta government telephones agt to create bct.telus gte s canadian subsidiaries were merged into the new parent making it the second largest telecommunications carrier in canada . as such gte s successor verizon communications was the only foreign telecommunications company with a greater than 20 % interest in a canadian carrier until verizon completely divested itself of its shares in 2004 . 5 in the caribbean contel purchased several major stakes in the newly independent countries of the british west indies namely in barbados jamaica and trinidad and tobago . 6 7 8 prior to gte s merger with bell atlantic gte also maintained an interactive television service joint venture called gte mainstreet sometimes also called mainstreet usa citation needed as well as an interactive entertainment and video game publishing operation gte interactive media . 9 10 11 contents 1 history 1.1 general telephone 1.2 1980s 1.3 1990s 2 merger with bell atlantic 3 operating companies 4 references 5 external links history edit gte s heritage can be traced to 1918 citation needed when three wisconsin public utility accountants john f. o connell sigurd l. odegard and john a. pratt pooled 33 500 to purchase the richland center telephone company serving 1 466 telephones in the dairy belt of southern wisconsin . in 1920 the three accountants formed a corporation commonwealth telephone company citation needed with odegard as president pratt as vice president and o connell as secretary . richland center telephone became part of commonwealth telephone which quickly purchased telephone companies in three nearby communities . in 1922 pratt resigned as vice president and was replaced by clarence r. brown a former bell system employee . by the mid 1920s commonwealth telephone had extended beyond wisconsin borders and purchased the belvidere telephone company in illinois . it also diversified into other utilities by acquiring two small wisconsin electrical companies . expansion was stepped up in 1926 when odegard secured an option to purchase associated telephone company of long beach california and proceeded to devise a plan for a holding company to be named associated telephone utilities company . an aggressive acquisition program was quickly launched in eastern midwestern and western states with the company using its own common stock to complete transactions . during its first six years associated telephone utilities acquired 340 telephone companies which were consolidated into 45 companies operating more than 437 000 telephones in 25 states . by the time the stock market bottomed out in october 1929 associated telephone utilities was operating about 500 000 telephones with revenues approaching 17 million . in january 1930 a new subsidiary associated telephone investment company was established . designed to support its parent s acquisition program the new company s primary business was buying company stock in order to bolster its market value . within two years the investment company had incurred major losses and a 1 million loan had to be negotiated . associated telephone investment was dissolved but not before its parent s financial plight had become irreversible and in 1933 associated telephone utilities went into receivership . general telephone edit the company was reorganized that same year and resurfaced in 1935 as general telephone corporation operating 12 newly consolidated companies . john winn a 26 year veteran of the bell system was named president . in 1936 general telephone created a new subsidiary general telephone directory company to publish directories for the parent s entire service area . like other businesses the telephone industry was under government restrictions during world war ii and general telephone was called upon to increase services at military bases and war production factories . following the war general telephone reactivated an acquisitions program that had been dormant for more than a decade and purchased 118 000 telephone lines between 1946 and 1950 . in 1950 general telephone purchased its first telephone equipment manufacturing subsidiary leich electric company along with the related leich sales corporation . general telephone s holdings included 15 telephone companies across 20 states by 1951 when donald c. power attorney utilities commissioner and former executive secretary for ohio governor john bricker was named president of the company under chairman and long time gt executive morris f. lacroix replacing the retiring harold bozell president 1940 1951 . power proceeded to expand the company through the 1950s principally through two acquisitions . in 1955 theodore gary & company the second largest independent telephone company which had 600 000 telephone lines was merged into general telephone which had grown into the largest independent outside the bell system . the merger gave the company 2.5 million lines . theodore gary s assets included telephone operations in the dominican republic british columbia and the philippines as well as automatic electric the second largest telephone equipment manufacturer in the u.s. it also had a subsidiary named the general telephone and electric corporation formed in 1930 with the transamerica corporation and british investors to compete against itt . 12 in 1959 general telephone and sylvania electric products merged and the parent s name was changed to general telephone & electric corporation gt & e . the merger gave sylvania a leader in such industries as lighting television and radio and chemistry and metallurgy the needed capital to expand . for general telephone the merger meant the added benefit of sylvania s extensive research and development capabilities in the field of electronics . power also orchestrated other acquisitions in the late 1950s including peninsular telephone company in florida with 300 000 lines and lenkurt electric company inc. a leading producer of microwave and data transmissions systems . in 1960 the subsidiary gt & e international incorporated was formed to consolidate manufacturing and marketing activities of sylvania automatic electric and lenkurt outside the united states . power was named c.e.o. and chairman in 1961 making way for leslie h. warner formerly of theodore gary to become president . during the next several years the scope of gt & e s research development and marketing activities was broadened . in 1963 sylvania began full scale production of color television picture tubes and within two years it was supplying color tubes for 18 of the 23 domestic u.s. television manufacturers . about the same time automatic electric began supplying electronic switching equipment for the u.s. defense department s global communications systems and gt & e international began producing earth based stations for both foreign and domestic markets . gt & e s telephone subsidiaries meanwhile began acquiring community antenna television systems catv franchises in their operating areas . in 1964 warner orchestrated a deal that merged western utilities corporation the nation s second largest independent telephone company with 635 000 telephones into gt & e. the following year sylvania introduced the revolutionary four sided flashcube enhancing its position as the world s largest flashbulb producer . acquisitions in telephone service continued under warner during the mid 1960s . purchases included quebec telephone in canada hawaiian telephone company and northern ohio telephone company and added a total of 622 000 telephone lines to gt & e operations . by 1969 gt & e was serving ten million telephones . kartrak automated car identification system on a caboose in florida . in the late 1960s gt & e joined in the search for a railroad car automatic car identification system . it designed the kartrak optical system which won over other manufacturer s systems in field trials but ultimately proved to need too much maintenance . in the late 1970s the system was abandoned . in march 1970 gt & e s new york city headquarters was bombed by a radical antiwar group in protest of the company s participation in defense work . in december of that year the gt & e board agreed to move the company s headquarters to stamford connecticut . in 1971 gt & e undertook an identity change and became simply gte while sylvania electric products became gte sylvania . 13 the same year donald c. power retired and leslie h. warner became chairman of the board . theodore f. brophy was brought in as president . after initially proposing to build separate satellite systems gte and its telecommunications rival american telephone & telegraph announced in 1974 joint venture plans for the construction and operation of seven earth based stations interconnected by two satellites . also in 1974 sylvania acquired name and distribution rights for philco television and stereo products . gte international expanded its activities during the same period acquiring television manufacturers in canada and israel and a telephone manufacturer in germany . in 1976 newly elected chairman theodore f. brophy reorganized the company along five global product lines communications lighting consumer electronics precision materials and electrical equipment . gte international was phased out during the reorganization and gte products corporation was formed to encompass both domestic and foreign manufacturing and marketing operations . at the same time gte communications products was formed to oversee operations of automatic electric lenkurt sylvania and gte information systems . in 1979 another reorganization soon followed under new president thomas a. vanderslice . gte products group was eliminated as an organizational unit and gte electrical products consisting of lighting precision materials and electrical equipment was formed . vanderslice also revitalized the gt & e telephone operating group in order to develop competitive strategies for anticipated regulatory changes in the telecommunications industry . in 1979 gte purchased telenet to establish a presence in the growing packet switching data communications business . gte telenet was later included in the us telecom joint venture . 1980s edit gt & e sold its consumer electronics businesses including the accompanying brand names of philco and sylvania to philips in 1981 after watching revenues from television and radio operations decrease precipitously with the success of foreign manufacturers . following at & t s 1982 announcement that it would divest 22 telephone operating companies gt & e made a number of reorganization moves . in 1982 the company adopted the name gte corporation and formed gte mobilnet incorporated to handle the company s entrance into the new cellular telephone