Business news: AT&T drops T-Mobile takeover bid, Apple wins court skirmish ...
20.05.12
AT&T Inc.’s $39 billion bid to acquire Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA came to an end yesterday in a phone call between the companies’ chief executive officers, according to people familiar with the matter.
AT&T’s Randall Stephenson and Deutsche Telekom’s Rene Obermann ultimately agreed the costs of continuing to fight for the deal unveiled nine months earlier were too high, given the opposition from U.S. regulators, the people said. AT&T’s bid to close the year’s biggest acquisition and become the largest U.S. wireless carrier was over.
“They made an unprecedented move bidding on T-Mobile and appear to have miscalculated the risks and the regulatory opposition,” said Kevin Smithen, an analyst with Macquarie Capital USA Inc.
AT&T failed to convince the Justice Department, which sued to block the transaction in August, that it could remedy the market impact of absorbing T-Mobile, the nation’s No. 4 mobile- phone operator. AT&T would have spent months in litigation to try to win court approval, and the company also faced possible opposition from the Federal Communications Commission.
Source: The Star-Ledger - NJ.com