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T-Mobile/Sprint merger faces big test as nine states sue to block it
Nine states and the District of Columbia today filed a lawsuit against T-Mobile and Sprint in an attempt to stop the wireless carriers from merging.
New York Attorney General Letitia James and California AG Xavier Becerra are leading the way, with co-plaintiffs from Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
"When it comes to corporate power, bigger isn't always better," James said in an announcement of the lawsuit. "The T-Mobile and Sprint merger would not only cause irreparable harm to mobile subscribers nationwide by cutting access to affordable, reliable wireless service for millions of Americans, but would particularly affect lower-income and minority communities here in New York and in urban areas across the country. That's why we are going to court to stop this merger and protect our consumers, because this is exactly the sort of consumer-harming, job-killing megamerger our antitrust laws were designed to prevent."
Becerra argued that the "merger would hurt the most vulnerable Californians and result in a compressed market with fewer choices and higher prices."
The AGs filed their complaint in US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 12 2019, @11:54AM (2 children)
We let a bunch of companies merge, creating the giant AT&T.
We let a bunch of companies merge, creating the giant Verizon.
Now suddenly we care about a couple piddly little pipsqueak companies merging?
I'm all about breaking up monopolies and preventing them from forming, but this is silly. It has the smell of politicians wanting their cut. The nicest interpretation is that the politics of blocking mergers has seen change, but then we really need to go back to break up AT&T and Verizon.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jmorris on Wednesday June 12 2019, @03:27PM (1 child)
Be more cynical. Now AT&T and Verizon are big enough to prevent a #3 from arising. So they prevent the merger and the marginal and struggling #3 and #4 both go bankrupt instead of becoming big enough to compete. Then AT&T and Verizon buy the corpses and get even bigger.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday June 12 2019, @05:36PM
We the people lease those guys some of our precious spectrum, and should reserve the right to pull out some/all spectrum leases from any provider(s), in order to allow equitable competition between 4 operators, as illustrated by prices similar to other advanced countries (South Korea, Japan, EU...).
(totally holding my breath, go Pai, go!)