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The AT&T T-Mobile Trial Has Been Put on Hold
The Deal (At Least As Originally Filed) Is Dead

Last week AT&T's planned acquisition of T-Mobile got even more treacherous, with the Department of Justice informing Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle the agency wanted to postpone the trial, arguing that there is no deal after AT&T pulled their application from the FCC. Huvelle seemed to agree, and gave AT&T a stern talking to for playing games in the courts in the face of an unraveling deal. While last week AT&T insisted they wanted to keep up the pace and rush toward trial, AT&T has had a change of heart and this afternoon issued this statement requesting the deal be put on hold. AT&T's statement:

quote:
“AT&T and Deutsche Telekom advised Judge Huvelle this morning that they wish to stay any further Court proceedings until January 18, 2012, to allow the two companies time to evaluate all options. The U.S. Department of Justice joined in the filing.

“AT&T is committed to working with Deutsche Telekom to find a solution that is in the best interests of our respective customers, shareholders and employees. We are actively considering whether and how to revise our current transaction to achieve the necessary regulatory approvals so that we can deliver the capacity enhancements and improved customer service that can only be derived from combining our two companies’ wireless assets."


It appears the T-Mobile deal is getting a break for the holidays, with the court granting the stay request (pdf) and legal proceedings not continuing until January 18. AT&T will now take some time to either scrap or reconfigure the deal so that it passes regulatory muster. However, initial proposals by AT&T -- which have involved divesting significant T-Mobile assets to Leap Wireless -- don't address key regulatory anti-competitive concerns with the deal. It's hard to think AT&T won't find some way to get what they want, but consumer group Public Knowledge issued a statement urging AT&T to finally put this particularly stinky baby to bed.

"We hope that AT&T will take the contemplative time over the holidays to realize that it should now call the transaction to an orderly halt," said Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge. "It is time for AT&T to end this now and save everyone a lot of time time and money for a case it cannot win."
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betam4x
join:2002-10-12
Nashville, TN

1 recommendation

betam4x

Member

Whoot!

WHOOHOO! My phone went from Edge to 4G today! A couple weeks ago i called up T-Mobile because the tower nearest to us was acting up and wasn't setting up calls right. They sent an email to the engineers and the engineers went out to fix the problem. Now today I find myself suddenly on 4G service. T-Mobile is the only service provider which actually has bars of service in my house.

I hope to god AT&T never takes over. They don't care about their customers.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

It's like the blob...

PR drones are so funny... Send the Court some cupcakes while you're at it AT&T... It worked with the FCC.

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· yNm8NLC4


EDIT: Oh wait... the cupcakes are appearing again!!!!

»attpublicpolicy.com/fcc/ ··· y-cheer/

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

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: It's like the blob...

said by IPPlanMan:

Oh wait... the cupcakes are appearing again!!!!
»attpublicpolicy.com/fcc/ ··· y-cheer/

They should send cupcakes to all their customers. They can skip Deutche Telekom though - when this deal falls thru they will get $4 billion and don't need free cupcakes.
jagged
join:2003-07-01
Boynton Beach, FL

1 edit

jagged

Member

AT&T already took a $4b charge

AT&T already took a charge for 2011 of $4b or whatever it was so the deal probably failed they're just working things out most likely. I wonder if DT is angry this dragged out the way it did, not getting your $39b and especially with so many customers fleeing when they heard they'd be AT&T's bitch

On Bloomberg there was an analyst who said if the deal failed Tmobile USA might send the whole industry into a price war trying to regain customers, funny if it happens.

coldmoon
Premium Member
join:2002-02-04
Fulton, NY

coldmoon

Premium Member

Re: They already took a charge

said by jagged:

AT&T already took a charge for 2011 of $4b or whatever it was so the deal probably failed they're just working things out most likely. I wonder if DT is angry this dragged out the way it did, not getting your $39b and especially with so many customers fleeing when they heard they'd be AT&T's bitch

On Bloomberg there was an analyst who said if the deal failed Tmobile USA might send the whole industry into a price war trying to regain customers, funny if it happens.

Perhaps this was part of their strategy and DT is privately happy with the bad PR AT&T is getting plus the cash and spectrum T-Mob is going to get without using up any resources.

Would be an interesting plot twist in the sure to be written "tell all" book someday...
jagged
join:2003-07-01
Boynton Beach, FL

jagged

Member

Re: They already took a charge

who knows.

My understanding is that $39b Tmobile USA value overpriced, it's real value is around $24b allegedly. If the deal is re-worked where AT&T has to divest assets (customers, towers, spectrum) it might mean DT getting a lot less than $39b, perhaps even giving up that 8% stake in AT&T Inc and the board seat.

The DOJ seems bent on having 4 national carriers, and the redacted and unseen documents AT&T submitted to the FCC show AT&T doesn't need Tmobile - their towers overlap about 96%, AT&T also owns tons of AWS spectrum and they own all 700Mhz from 704-746Mhz, Verizon got 746-787 and in a year or so they have 196 million POPs or service to 196 million pepople forget which.

Interesting thing though is that AT&T itself is in $70b debt, and growing, they'll have to borrow $29b to get Tmobile USA. And even had to issue more bonds, this or last week, to help make payments on the debts. So they went into more debt to pay debt off...

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA

fuziwuzi

Premium Member

Sanity prevails...

It is nice to know that even repeated lies and tons of money can't assure AT&T of everything they want. Death to the Deathstar!
old_wiz_60
join:2005-06-03
Bedford, MA

old_wiz_60

Member

But what happened..

to the millions of dollars in fat envelopes that AT&T lobbyists slipped to the courts and agencies to get the deal approved? No wonder AT&T is so mad.
ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL

1 recommendation

ISurfTooMuch

Member

Re: But what happened..

Maybe the people they needed to bribe use T-Mobile and don't want to wind up on AT&T's crappy network.

Either that, or the checks didn't clear in time.

kara
@comcast.net

kara

Anon

Yah for now

I hate at&t hope they lose alot money on crap they trying to pull.
SauceMaster
join:2004-08-01
Kokomo, IN

1 recommendation

SauceMaster

Member

AT&T is like .......

The Psycho EX Girlfriend who doesn't know when to give up or go away. I'm not sure anything will pass long as AT&T is in the deal. I just think the FCC is just going to make it very hard for AT&T to gain any kind of deal with T-mobile.

I heard Dish Network say they are interested if this AT&T deal never makes it off the ground. I honestly don't think that's a good deal either. I'd love to dream that Google would buy T-Mobile , but that maybe just a big , big dream. I can dream can't I ?