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AT&T Stops T-Mobile Merger Bid With the FCC
An anonymous reader writes Relationships are tough and it looks like AT&T and T-Mobile's has stopped before it even started. From the article: 'AT&T and T-Mobile have announced that they will remove their pending applications to the FCC for their merger bid. This comes after statements from the FCC chairman 'strongly opposing the merger'. In doing so, AT&T has agreed to pay T-Mobile 4 Billion US dollars to cover accounting and other costs that this may have caused. While AT&T would still like to merge, it is unlikely that they will gain antitrust clearance from the Department of Justice. It's the antitrust aspect that this is mostly about, in that AT&T has said that they want this move to free up the FCC to consider all options, and focus both AT&T and T-Mobile on the pending antitrust.'"
Yay!
That means the T-Mobile commercials with that hot girl in pink will continue!
Hell just froze over. I am not sure I can sleep tonight.
T-Mobile is now officially my #1 entry. Deutsche Telekom was looking to get rid of them, and I don't see them being likely to hold in there very long without them.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Wow, for once something that was clearly a bad idea with AT&T didn't happen.
Can we now go back and break up the babybells again? :P Nah, actually with the decline in landline use it's probably not necessary since cable co's also offer phone VOIP service.
What this hopefully means is that T-Mobile gets the next iPhone with LTE and that should save their sinking ship.
Does this mean the merger is officially dead or is it just the first step in ending the merger? The article gave me the impression that the merger was still happening, kinda, but not with the FCC.
-Sean
I'll meet you at the intersection of "Should be" and "Reality"
tinfoilhat
There is enough money here to buy some politicians or at least make them want to look the other way.
I have a feeling AT&T doesn't mind "paying" T-Mobile as in the future (near?) they will simply get that money back once they do finally merge.
/tinfoilhat>/p>
Just what kind of other costs could they have? $4B is an awful lot of hookers...
A recursive sig
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Call proc signature()
AT&T Stops T-Mobile Merger Bid With the FCC
I didn't even know T-Mobile was trying to merge with the FCC. How did AT&T stop it?
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
"Under the table"
All the same....
We didn't merge....
We love each other.....
Peace in corps.....
As someone who's been following this merger bid for the past ~6 months, I must say, woot! Even if you disagree with the outcome here, the fact that there's finally been some sort of conclusion to this case is reassuring.
Gee, it's almost enough to make you believe that regulators can do their job once in a while. Maybe the FCC can run training seminars for the SEC...
Regardless, it's the right decision. Mergers of this scale are bad for everyone except one of the two CEOs. One guy gets a promotion. Meanwhile customers lose choice, the market loses competition, employees lose jobs (when they become redundant), and shareholders lose their investment (when half get bought out).
And that's before you factor in the (rightly) indignant T-Mobile customers, most of whom have sworn a solemn oath to do business with anyone but AT&T.
AT&T is withdrawing their FCC applications because they will not be able to be acted upon under the current fiscal year docket.
AT&T and T-Mobile are still going to attempt to merge, going to trial in Federal Court in February 2012.
THE MERGER IS STILL GOING FORWARD, albeit over rough ground and with significant challenges. AT&T has decided to take the 4 billion dollar charge in FY2011 for the tax advantages.
"4 Billion US dollars to cover accounting and other costs"
Just what kind of other costs could they have? $4B is an awful lot of hookers...
How about the costs of salvaging their PR, building out infrastructure, and implementing whatever strategy they come up with after their whole "sell out, take the ATT stock, and run away" plans fell through?
AT&T figures it should bring the full weight of bribes and lobbying to bear on one agency at a time... so they're starting with the DoJ. After they knock that off, then they can concentrate on the FCC.
They're still in a bad position here that they didn't expect to be in, so I guess Verizon and Sprint had some pretty good counter-bribes under the table. The merger's in serious trouble at this point. To the bribe-mobile!
AT&T knew this merger would never happen. It was all a big distraction. What happens next is AT&T blusters a bit, then the FCC, which already has localities scrambling because of the deadlines for next generation emergency services radio. Well, why not just quietly pass them some lucrative monopoly contracts for supplying lots of new network services and devices for localities all over the country? Just a consolation, right? Or, just the thing they really wanted in the first place, only now everyone will think AT&T lost, instead of complaining about giving them such a huge amount of business on the taxpayer dime.
Call me paranoid if you want, but you might want to wait a few weeks and see what happens.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
oh geez, is that why cmdrtaco quit? I thought he had a wife. I hope he's happy now, but damn....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs
Asking as someone wanting to get a more educated answer from the good denizens of Slashdot:
It's been stated on here before that there's been the trend of the phone industry to keep going through these mergers. I remember somebody posted a great flow chart of the monopoly breakup of old Bell and the subsequent acquisitions that followed.
Is there any reason why this industry in particular keeps splitting and then gradually getting re-merged - is it any different than any other industry and just more publicized, or is this industry prone to more consolidation over all? Seeing as it all seems to be the derivatives of the old regime AT&T that were gradually reacquired, why is all the power gradually flowing back to AT&T over time? Is it patent control? Aggressive marketing driving out competitors? The company mentality? What makes AT&T survive getting split up, to being back to its current state and trying to acquire T-mobile now? I'd love any insight you have to share!
I've been with T-Mo for almost 15 years, and this is good news. Not great news -- I'm sure there will be more trouble for T-mo in some form or another -- but at least not this year, and probably not next. But you know what this does mean? I'm re-upping my contract with T-Mo. When T-Mo came calling last year (one of several "PLEEZ don't jump ship" themed customer retention campaigns) I told them desire to have a GSM phone was only trumped by a desire never to be an AT&T customer again. As long as the death star doesn't gobble them up, T-Mo can keep having my money.
Oh, and btw -- T-Mo coverage is more than adequate across the US & Canada, (Iirc I still don't have coverage in rural Neb and WY, but no trouble anywhere else), data services are cheap, and they actually have decent humans in the corp stores. T-Mo isn't making money hand over fist, but they're doing _ok_, and that's good. In these times, in this economy, I want to give my money to an org that's doing _ok_: neither going out of business, nor robbing me. You hear that, T-Mo? "Ok" and "staying in business without f__king your customers" is the new black. So keep on keeping on.
I think not...(*poof*)
Wasn't there are story about the Chinese telecom companies trying to get into the US telecom business last week? Wouldn't a T-Mobile buyout by a Chinese company be the next step now that AT&T lost their chance? Wouldn't the current administration which is beholden to foreign investment funds be willing to sell T-Mobile to the Chinese? Is this too far fetched to image this happening?
Why is T-Mobile trying to merge with the FCC?
Four billion to cover "accounting costs"?
.... wow, no wonder they're going under.
Can I be their accountants? I mean
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
Nananananananana, Bribeman!
My UID is prime. Hah!
I've had service from all 4 of the major carriers (Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and TMo) and they all sucked. How much they sucked depended to some extent on where I happened to be physically at any point in time and how much I had to deal with their customer service. In the case of TMo, they sucked on coverage, but they /really/ sucked the most on customer service. People complain about AT&T and Verizon customer service but I've had far more success with them than I ever did with TMo. I am not sure that I ever had a successful interaction with them and I finally dumped them after about 3 years of that crap.
These companies aren't going to change. The mindset of the management teams and boards prohibits it. They will continue to screw their bases with bizarre pricing plans, poorly implemented limits and serious privacy issues. Maybe what we need is for them to continue to roll up into a couple of large, lumbering, unresponsive companies and then have someone nimble come in with new technology and decent plans and radically shift the playing field.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
My final 2-year ends January and I won't be looking back. T-mobile has proven to me that they have the worst customer service and are pure evil when it comes to overages. On top of that their standard pricing is nothing to be excited about. Coverage is spotty to OK around Atlanta, but drops 10 minutes off of main interstates in rural areas.
They have been expanding some and trying for force the carriers to open up on both the landbased and cellular connections. This seems like a perfect place.
They already have or are in the process of acquiring Motorola, if they buy T-Mobile then they would have their own fully functioning Cell Phone service they can use to both make cash while forcing the other players to either play nice or lose customers to them.
Just like how they are starting their own ISP (small area to start but it is a start) and hopefully will start to expand that.
I know you don't ever trust a corporation but so far, they have done more to earn some karma points than the current players. So I say, let them play and just watch over them so they play nice.
As I have said before, I am in love with Carly Foulkes (the T-Mobile spokes-model) and I intend to purchase whatever she tells me to buy.
Proverbs 21:19
why does a company have to pay for a merger that isnt going through? they still have to pay $4billion for a company they wont get?? does this make sense
I think that girlintraining will join you in being happy about that.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Since reagan/neo-cons all but killed the anti-monopoly bill, America has gone downhill. Capitalism is the way to go, but only when it is fair and now one cheats. Sadly, the larger the business, or the more tied to a gov the business, the higher the likelihood that cheating will occur. Monopolies are infamous for cheating. So, are china-owned business.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
We did just the opposite. We have not been on a contract for many years, and had unlocked iPhones on T-Mobile (better coverage, far fewer dropped calls here in fly over country than Verizon). We signed a contract just in case the merger went through, so we had some standing when AT&T wanted to raise our rates or kick us off their network.