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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday February 12 2020, @12:51PM   Printer-friendly

Judge approves $26 billion merger of T-Mobile and Sprint:

Shares of Sprint soared Tuesday after a U.S. District judge ruled in favor of its $26 billion deal to merge with T-Mobile.

The stock was up 75% Tuesday morning. It had risen after hours Monday after The Wall Street Journal reported the judge was expected to rule in favor of the deal. Shares of T-Mobile were up 10%.

The ruling clears one of the final hurdles for the deal, which still can't close until the California Public Utilities Commission approves the transaction. Tuesday's ruling also culminates a years-long courtship between Sprint and T-Mobile, which have made multiple attempts over the years to merge, only to abandon their plans fearing regulatory scrutiny.

Attorneys general from New York, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and D.C. originally brought the lawsuit to block the deal following approval from the Justice Department of Federal Communications Commission. The states had argued that combining the No. 3 and No. 4 U.S. carriers would limit competition and result in higher prices for consumers. The companies had argued their merger would help them compete against top players AT&T and Verizon and advance efforts to build a nationwide 5G network.

In his decision filed Tuesday, Judge Victor Marrero wrote, "The resulting stalemate leaves the Court lacking sufficiently impartial and objective ground on which to rely in basing a sound forecast of the likely competitive effects of a merger."

The judge laid out three points on which the court rejected the states' objections to the merger. First, he said, they failed to convince the court that the merged party "would pursue anticompetitive behavior that, soon after the merger, directly or indirectly, will yield higher prices or lower quality for wireless telecommunications services."

Second, the court rejected that Sprint would be able to continue operating effectively as a wireless services competitor without the merger.

"The Court is thus substantially persuaded that Sprint does not have a sustainable long-term competitive strategy and will in fact cease to be a truly national [mobile network operator]," the ruling said.

And finally, the court rejected the states' argument that Dish Network "would not enter the wireless services market as a viable competitor nor live up to its commitments to build a national wireless network." The deal called for Dish to step in as a new wireless player based on agreements with the DOJ and FCC. Shares of Dish were up 11% on the judge's ruling.

In a statement following the ruling, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who helped lead the states' push, said the states "disagree with this decision wholeheartedly, and will continue to fight the kind of consumer-harming megamergers our antitrust laws were designed to prevent." She called the ruling and called it a "loss" for Americans who rely on wireless networks and said the states will review their options, including a potential appeal.

[...] If approved by the California commission, the deal would create a new wireless competitor in Dish, which has tried for years to become a provider, spending billions on airwaves it has stored away. Under a previous deal between Dish and the DOJ and FCC, the company had a deadline this year to build a narrowband internet of things (IoT) network connecting "people and sensors and microprocessors." If the deal clears, Dish will instead focus its efforts on building a 5G network covering 20% of the country by June 2022 and 70% of the U.S. population by June 2023, with the consequence of facing a $2.2 billion payment to the U.S. Treasury if it fails to live up to its commitments.

Legere, the T-Mobile CEO, announced last year he would step down from the role and be succeeded by President and COO Mike Sievert. Legere had been expected to step down once the company's merger with Sprint was completed. Sprint and T-Mobile had initially said Legere would lead the combined company when they announced their intention to merge in April 2018.

Previously:


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 13 2020, @07:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 13 2020, @07:03PM (#957819)

    If it were up to me I would have them implement a cryptographic voting system of some sort (end to end user verified cryptographic voting system) but the problem is that such a system is way too beyond the general public's ability to understand to get them to rally behind it.