Ending the most controversial telecommunications transaction of the year, AT&T announced Monday that it has abandoned its $39 billion bid to acquire T-Mobile.
“AT&T will continue to be aggressive in leading the mobile Internet revolution,” Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO, said in a statement, but that won’t include an effort to purchase T-Mobile in light of the government’s efforts to block it.
Continue ReadingAT&T first announced its bid for T-Mobile in March, predicting soon after it would sail through an official review of the deal by the FCC and Department of Justice by early 2012.
But the wireless giant’s plans quickly hit a snag as antitrust watchdogs at DOJ took the matter the court. Following suit months later was the FCC, which began the process of referring the deal to an administrative law judge. Fearing that, AT&T withdrew its application from the FCC.
At the same time, the prospects of salvaging the deal with a settlement before a federal judge began to sour.
Even before federal regulators mounted their campaign against the deal, opponents sought to pillory it as an attempt by AT&T to reunite the lost baby bells. Competitors including Sprint, public interest groups and members of Congress — including the Senate’s top antitrust lawmakers — sounded alarms that the deal could harm wireless competition and result in fewer choices and higher bills for consumers.
The company will to pay T-Mobile a $4 billion break-up fee as initially agreed to and will enter a “mutually beneficial” roaming agreement with Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s parent company.
But the wireless giant’s plans quickly hit a snag as antitrust watchdogs at DOJ took the matter the court. Following suit months later was the FCC, which began the process of referring the deal to an administrative law judge. Fearing that, AT&T withdrew its application from the FCC.
At the same time, the prospects of salvaging the deal with a settlement before a federal judge began to sour.
Even before federal regulators mounted their campaign against the deal, opponents sought to pillory it as an attempt by AT&T to reunite the lost baby bells. Competitors including Sprint, public interest groups and members of Congress — including the Senate’s top antitrust lawmakers — sounded alarms that the deal could harm wireless competition and result in fewer choices and higher bills for consumers.
The company will to pay T-Mobile a $4 billion break-up fee as initially agreed to and will enter a “mutually beneficial” roaming agreement with Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s parent company.
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