AT&T extends date for T-Mobile deal to close
- 05 November, 2011 05:21
- Comments
AT&T has pushed back the expected date of its proposed US$39 billion merger with T-Mobile USA, saying now that the deal will close in the first half of 2012.
When it announced the deal in April, AT&T said it expected to get regulatory approval within 12 months. But a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice and seven states, filed on Aug. 31, made that forecast unrealistic. The suit isn't even scheduled to go to trial until Feb. 13, 2012.
AT&T laid out the new timeline in a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
The DOJ has argued that the merger would raise prices and stifle innovation by eliminating a low-price competitor. AT&T's plans have also come under attack from some consumer groups and from Sprint Nextel and C-Spire Wireless, a smaller mobile operator. Earlier this week, a federal judge allowed a lawsuit by Sprint and C-Spire to go forward. Those carriers argue that the merger would make it harder for them to acquire new types of handsets because of exclusive deals that a combined AT&T and T-Mobile could make.
Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email ARN
- Follow ARN on twitter
- McAfee Whitepaper: Building the Business Case for Privacy
- Cloud and Co-Location Solutions
- Virtualization and Consolidation Solutions
- New Gateway Anti-Malware Technology Sets the Bar for Web Threat Protection (Sponsored by McAfee)
- Modernizing Security for the Small and Mid-Sized Business – Recommendations for 2013 (Sponsored by McAfee)
- Most data in organisations is “junk,” difficult to get context: CommVault
- UPDATED: Good Technology promotes and replaces head of A/NZ
- And the State of the IT Channel iPad winners are ...
- Symantec Australia in legal proceedings with former channels director, Jeff Arndt
- Huawei inks deal with 2degrees to deploy 4G network
-
Titan falls: Today's top supercomputer is owned by China, powered by Intel
-
Armidale hosts fastest wireless NBN in Australia: Fusion Broadband
-
Armidale hosts fastest wireless NBN in Australia: Fusion Broadband
-
Armidale hosts fastest wireless NBN in Australia: Fusion Broadband
-
Armidale hosts fastest wireless NBN in Australia: Fusion Broadband
Get exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events. 
