AT&T announced its plans to take over T Mobile in March 2011. More than five months later, the US Department of Justice filed suit to block it. Now the FCC joins the fray. While all this is going on, T Mobile must be hemorrhaging to death. In Sri Lanka, we do not have these kinds of complications. In law, only the regulator’s approval is required. But the takeover of Suntel, an ailing fixed telecom provider, has been in limbo for almost as long.
So the lesson is, decide quickly.
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission took steps Tuesday to block the proposed $39 billion merger of the mobile phone companies AT&T and T-Mobile USA.
The chairman, Julius Genachowski, made the move after the commission’s staff concluded that the deal would harm consumers, kill jobs and result in an overly concentrated wireless phone industry, F.C.C. officials said.
The decision puts another large roadblock in front of AT&T, the nation’s second-largest wireless phone company, in its effort to buy T-Mobile, the fourth-largest carrier. In August, the Justice Department filed a federal antitrust lawsuit to block the merger, saying it would stifle competition.
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