What could AT&T call its new unnamed divisions? Here are some ideas

After learning that the U.S. Department of Justice won’t request a delay after a federal judge approved its acquisition of Time Warner, AT&T has announced it will organize itself into four business groups — but two of them, including the group that would control CNN, don’t have their final names yet.

(Apparently TimeWarner didn’t like any of these suggestions)

AT&T completes Time Warner acquisition https://t.co/0xNnk4D5fO #TVNews #BroadcastNews pic.twitter.com/a5Iewx1vjm

— TVNewsMix (@TVNewsMix) June 15, 2018

AT&T Communications, which provides mobile, broadband, video and other communications services to the U.S. primarily under the U-verse and DirecTV brands, and AT&T International, which includes the company’s mobile and video services in Mexico, the Caribbean and South America, will stick with those names.

AT&T settles on ‘normal’ name for ‘media’ division

However, the groups tentatively titled “AT&T media business” and “AT&T advertising and analytics business” are slated to get new names, according to AT&T.

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So, what could those names end up being?

It seems as though AT&T might be looking to drop “AT&T” references in the names — otherwise, “AT&T Media” seems like it would be a perfectly good name.

AT&T’s media business includes HBO, Warner Brothers and Turner, the latter of which includes CNN. Meanwhile AT&T’s advertising and analytics businesses do pretty much what the name says — provide insights into consumer data and developer and sell ads across AT&T-owned platforms. 

AT&T plans to drop Time Warner name after merger https://t.co/XiFqK6RClJ #TVNews #BroadcastNews pic.twitter.com/2fpNLEezFS

— TVNewsMix (@TVNewsMix) June 14, 2018

AT&T has also said that the Time Warner name won’t be sticking around.

Given the latest trend of media companies using made up words — “Tronc” and “Tegna” anyone — this could result in some interesting new brand names.

AT&T could go another direction and, like rival Verizon, use a generic name such as “Oath” that mainly covers its interests in AOL and Yahoo!

Along those lines, here are some (tongue-in-cheek) suggestions for what AT&T could call the newly formed media division:

• “Atme” — in honor of “Tronc,” which is meant to be short for “Tribune Online Content,” why not this name, short for “AT&T media”? Alternatives: “Amebus” for “AT&T media businesses or”Amedi,” also short for “AT&T media” (bonus points for “Amedi” for having vague pronunciation).
• Like Gannett’s idea of putting the letter “G” in the middle of the made up word “Tenga” maybe something like “Teano” would work? Other similar options: “Timano” gets a reference to “Time Warner” in there or “Ataga” sounds sort of like a fun dance — but might be too close to the name of a prison?
• Or maybe, to borrow Verizon’s approach, just come up with a generic, trustworthy sounding name that does’t really have any to do with the business: “Trust,” “Pledge” and “Promise” could work.
• Another option would be to bring back the “Cingular” name AT&T used for its wireless phone services — and maybe another division could be called “Pluralar”? Hey, they both have weird spellings and could appeal to millennials!
• Finally, maybe AT&T could use its trademark use of the ampersand to create names — such as “TM&M” for “TV, media and more” or “CH&W” for “CNN, HBO and Warner Brothers.”

There are probably hundreds of other fun possibilities out there — share yours in the comments or reply on social media.