AT&T May Divest Up to 40% of T-Mobile USA to Gain Approval
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Comments 60
Nov 25, 2011, 5:20 PM by Eric M. Zeman
AT&T is preparing to resubmit its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA with more divestitures in order to help the deal gain approval, reports Bloomberg. Citing unnamed sources that are familiar with AT&T's plans, Bloomberg says that the company may offer to divest as much as 40% of T-Mobile USA's assets to help convince the Department of Justice that the deal is worthwhile. AT&T is facing a lawsuit from the Department of Justice over the proposal, which says the deal would give AT&T too much power in the market. This week, the Federal Communications Commission said it was considering an order that would send the deal before an administrative law judge. FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said the acquisition would not be in the best interests of Americans. On Thursday, AT&T withdrew its merger application from the FCC, hoping to prevent the government body from finalizing the order. The FCC could dimiss the application outright now that it has been withdrawn, but AT&T is defending its right to withdraw and resubmit a new plan. "We have every right to withdraw our merger from the FCC, and the FCC has no right to stop us," said AT&T General Counsel Wayne Watts in a statement. "Any suggestion the agency might do otherwise would be an abuse of procedure which we would immediately challenge in court." AT&T indicated earlier this week that it would write down a $4 billion charge for the fourth quarter of this year in preparation for the eventual defeat of the acquisition.
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Just more evidence
That AT&T's main objective is to eliminate a competitor.
Does this really surprise you?
I don't believe that's the case at all. In all honesty, T-mobile isn't even a competitor for at&t. When a company has lower prices, most of the same phones, only 30% of the customers and losing ground daily, that isn't much competition. The main reas...
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Has everyone forgot that Tmobile has been trying to get rid of itself? I understand the concerns but, lets put blame where it needs to be. Any business in the same position as ATT would do exactly the same thing, if the other company has similar produ...
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What is the big deal
I had att at one point, then moved to T-Mobile and to be honest my iPhone 4 worked better with att, but why such all the crying over this merger? Has anyone even saw that T-mobile is not going to put anymore money into the network, so why not let them sell out to att its not like sprint or verizon wants them, their all still on CDMA and proud of it, ijs.
The big deal is...
You switched to T-Mobile with your iPhone from AT&T for a reason right? Now suppose you never had that option and were stuck on AT&T, and suppose AT&T knew that.
Also Sprint DID want them. Just because Sprint uses CDMA doesn't...
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Yes ur right about if I didnt have the option but honestly ive alwaus had att I only left because they cut my unlim data saying I was tethering which I was not my wife had tether on her line 19.99 I think, so when they cut it I left just may go back ...
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Do people even think before askng a question?
Comparing Verizon to Att for buying out Alltel is such a dumb statement I can't believe anyone who is getting into this debate is bashing verizon for buying a regional carrier out and they are saying what is the difference with tmobile and Att ?Well we are talking alltel had less than 10-15 million people and had to divest a good percentage of it and Tmobile has how many people?? Give me a break you are calling someone a fanboy because you are mad that a super monopoly could be prevented from be created here.
Just 1 Question!
What's the difference in this merger then the VZW/ALLTEL merger? I'm sure majority of the people here were against it. Why would yhou want to stop someone who wants out the game but still wants to get paid also. When it comes down to it someone else other then Sprint will be next in line to take T-Mobile's place.
Because they're not AT&T or Apple and in the minds of these fanboi's, its very different. Same goes, no outcry over the feeble attempts for Sprint to take over TMO. And they ignore even their own logic, which means we would have been left with only ...
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Because Verizon was much smaller than AT&T at the time. AT&T now is the size of Verizon after the Alltel buy-out, and Verizon still had to divest a lot of Alltel.
Although I don't think the Verizon/Alltel deal should have happened, either.
Alltel was never a top-tier national carrier. They were a smaller regional carrier, basically. Verizon still had to divest a lot to gain approval. That was about the number of choices in less populated areas, though.
This is one of the four nationa...
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My vote
This deal is bad news for industry workers and consumers. Hope it doesn't go through - even with the new proposal.
I definitely agree. If it goes through it's going to stifle competition.
I run a cell phone trade in company and bad news for me (and my customers) as well.
Hope the gov will see through this and keep them from merging.
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