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FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

2 edits

FFH5

Premium Member

AT&T details on the deal and more info to come

On Monday, March 21, 2011, at 8 a.m. ET, AT&T Inc. will host a live video and audio webcast presentation regarding its announcement to acquire T-Mobile USA. Links to the webcast and accompanying documents will be available on AT&T's Investor Relations website. Please log in 15 minutes ahead of time to test your browser and register for the call.
»www.att.com/gen/landing- ··· pid=5718

For dial-in access, please dial +1 (888) 517-2464 within the U.S. or +1 (630) 827-6816 outside the U.S. after 7:30 a.m. ET. Enter passcode 8442095# to join or ask the conference call operator for the AT&T Investor Relations event.

The webcast will be available for replay on AT&T’s Investor Relations website on March 21, 2011, starting at 12:30 p.m. ET

FFH5

FFH5

Premium Member

The merger web site they set up

The Merger Web Site:
»www.mobilizeeverything.c ··· home.php

Combining Spectrum facts:
»www.mobilizeeverything.c ··· trum.php

AT&T claims still be plenty of competition:
»www.mobilizeeverything.c ··· tion.php

AT&T claims merger will cause prices to fall:
»www.mobilizeeverything.c ··· cing.php

Lots of facts about the merging companies:
»www.mobilizeeverything.c ··· heet.pdf

How this merger benefits consumers:
»www.mobilizeeverything.c ··· mers.php

And the all important info for the investors:
»www.mobilizeeverything.c ··· form.pdf
FFH5

FFH5

Premium Member

And AT&T's annual stockholders mtg will be on 4/29. At least they will have plenty to talk about at the annual mtg.
FFH5

FFH5

Premium Member

T-Mobile's assets are ESTIMATED to be worth about $16.8 billion based on 12.4x estimated earnings. AT&T is paying $39 billion for those assets. So, it certainly looks like they are overpaying. I'll be interested to see what AT&T's stock opens up at on Monday morning.

»www.bloomberg.com/news/2 ··· m-a.html

Based on the median value of 12.4 times earnings for mobile-phone companies around the world, T-Mobile USA would have a market capitalization of $16.8 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

It'll open down, and then rally back this week as investors realize what they're truly getting. Not much different than many acquirers.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Consumer advocates hate it; but are criticized

»news.cnet.com/8301-1035_ ··· 1_3-0-20

Within hours, the Media Access Project announced that "if approved, this deal would further increase costs and decrease choices for the public." Media reform group Free Press headlined its press release, "Consumers lose when there's less competition." And Public Knowledge condemned the deal as "unthinkable."

That sort of rhetoric is par for the course inside-the-beltway where, for some reason, every combination of business assets is presumed to be hostile to consumers. These groups are so convinced of the evils of mergers that they no longer feel the need for bothersome facts and time-wasting analysis.

The real risk here is that between the FCC and the Department of Justice (it isn't clear yet which agency will take the lead in reviewing the proposed merger), the deal won't be closed quickly, slowing the combined company's ability to deploy new 4G service to nearly everyone.

The FCC's review of the Comcast-NBC merger, for example, took more than a year, despite the fact that the agency has a self-imposed (but unenforced) 180-day shot clock. After fits and starts, the approval resulted in a nearly 300-page document rife with irrelevant hand-wringing and unrelated conditions on the merged entity,

his is just a start to what will be, in the best of circumstances, a long and complicated conversation about the AT&T-T-Mobile deal. But when opponents line up to preemptively reject the deal before the details are even announced, you can count on a longer and largely pointless slog.

Thinking--and actual economic analysis-- about proposed mergers is certainly harder than blustering about the "unthinkable." But if the Washington advocacy groups actually want to do something to improve the consumer experience in mobile, they might give it a try.

FFH5

FFH5

Premium Member

Regulators may slow things down

»news.cnet.com/8301-30686 ··· 1_3-0-20

The FCC has already expressed concern over the competitive landscape in wireless. In May the FCC warned that the industry is getting too concentrated. In its report, the agency said that since 2003, market concentration in wireless has increased 32 percent. The report indicates that 60 percent of the nation's subscribers and revenue come from the country's two largest wireless providers: AT&T and Verizon Wireless. The FCC noted that these companies are continuing to gain customers as other national operators, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA, have been losing subscribers.

So far the FCC hasn't issued a statement regarding the proposed AT&T-T-Mobile merger. But insiders at the agency have said previously that they would be more concerned with an acquisition between AT&T and Verizon Wireless and either Sprint Nextel or T-Mobile USA than a merger involving Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile.

At least one congressional leader is already pushing the FCC and Department of Justice to take a hard look at this deal. "With every passing day, wireless services are becoming more and more important to the way we communicate," John D. Rockefeller IV (D-West Virginia), chairman of the Senate's Commerce Science and Transportation committee, said in a statement. "So it is absolutely essential that both the Department of Justice and the FCC leave no stone unturned in determining what the impact of this combination is on the American people."

While it is possible that the FCC and/or the Justice Department could simply stop the merger from happening, it's unlikely they'd do that, Golvin said. Instead, it's more likely that these agencies would put conditions on the merger and require AT&T to divest some of its wireless spectrum assets, he added.

The deal comes just days before the wireless industry meets in Orlando, Fla., for the CTIA's spring trade show and conference. On Tuesday morning, CEOs from three of the four major U.S. wireless carriers--AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint Nextel--will take the stage for a roundtable discussion. T-Mobile USA told All Things Digital that it has dropped out of the panel discussion at CTIA. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is also expected to give a speech Tuesday morning from CTIA. It's unclear how much if anything the players involved in the merger will say at CTIA. But CNET will be there, so stay tuned.