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AT&T Stops T-Mobile Merger Bid With the FCC

Posted by samzenpus on from the never-meant-to-be dept.

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.'"

6 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. Corporate Dead Pool 2012 by damn_registrars · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Corporate Dead Pool 2012 by Burdell · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I expect T-Mobile will still be sold, just not to another major mobile phone provider. I wouldn't be surprised if CenturyLink ends up buying them; they are the largest telecom company without a mobile presence.

      There's too many customers and too much spectrum for them to just be shut down. They're even still showing growth, just not as much as AT&T and Verizon (and not as much as Deutsche Telekom would like).

  2. Good news by macwhizkid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  3. Re:$4 Billion? by Bill+Dimm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    T-mobile may have lost a bunch of potential customers while the merger was pending, i.e. anyone that hates AT&T would be very reluctant to to sign a phone contract with T-mobile knowing they would be stuck with AT&T if the deal went through.

  4. Re:So.. by Demonantis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At&t is still pursuing through the DOJ. They are probably dropping the FCC application since it won't go through and they can wait until the DOJ review goes through. I think they are dropping FCC application so if the DOJ passes it they can argue that the FCC should follow suit and any of FCC's arguments would become weaker as the DOJ didn't have a problem. Wall Street Journal has a more informative article. According to it T-mobile is not doing so hot and the parent company is interested in exiting the US market. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204452104577057482069627186.html

  5. Re:Hell has Frozen Over 2x by swalve · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The bell breakup was stupid. Decouple Bell Long Distance from Bell Local Service, yes. But break up Bell into SBC and Illinois Bell and Mid Atlantic Bell and all of that was asinine. It makes no goddamned difference to the consumer how big the company is when they have no other choice for their dialtone service.