Items tagged with Merger
Sprint and T-Mobile announced a little over a year ago that they would be merging into one company. However, the United States Department of Justice has a few things to say about this union before the companies can ride off into the sunset. The Department of Justice has reportedly told Sprint and T-Mobile that the government will not allow the deal to be completed as it currently stands. Last spring, Sprint and T-Mobile announced that they would merge together to provide the best 5G network possible. Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure noted, “Going from 4G to 5G is like going from black and white to color TV...It’s a seismic shift-- one that only the combined company can unlock nationwide...
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Federal regulators are big on keeping healthy competition in the wireless marketplace and have in the past blocked mergers of major wireless carriers from happening. Last April, T-Mobile and Sprint announced that they intended to merge with T-Mobile CEO John Legere leading the combined companies. The two carriers claim that when combined they would be better able to compete against Verizon and AT&T and accelerate the rollout of 5G. The two companies have attempted twice in the past two join forces. A third attempt likely surprised some considering the previous deals were never successful. Reports claim that even if the Justice Department approves the merger this time around, states...
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Almost as fast as the rumors began, talks of a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile have been officially called off. T-Mobile has announced that discussions on a potential merger, rumors of which surfaced first in September, of the Uncarrier and Sprint have ended because the two companies were unable to find mutually agreeable terms. Even if the two mobile carriers had been able to come to agreeable terms, they certainly would have needed regulatory approval. Historically, regulators have been unwilling to approve a merger that limits competition in the mobile market and with the "duopoly" already firmly in place, as TMo CEO John Legere likes to refer to his primary competition, another consolidation...
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We first got an inkling that Dell Inc. was interested in purchasing EMC Corp late last week, and today we received official confirmation of that deal. And as we expected back then, this a whopper of a deal — in fact, it’s being billed as the largest tech acquisition in history. The world’s No. 3 PC maker — with the help of MSD Partners and Silver Lake — is offering up $33.15 per share in cash and special stock for EMC, valuing the deal at $67 billion. The $33.15/share price is roughly 28 percent higher than EMC’s share price at close of day Wednesday October 7th; the day before the first reports of the deal started trickling out. The share price also includes $9.10 worth of tracking stock for...
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As we originally posted yesterday, Comcast today confirmed that it has abandoned its bid to acquire rival Time Warner Cable for $45 billion. The deal, which was originally announced in February 2014, was questionable at best, but came under more scrutiny in recent weeks. The company issued a brief statement this morning indicating that the merger has been terminated. "Today, we move on. Of course, we would have liked to bring our great products to new cities, but we structured this deal so that if the government didn’t agree, we could walk away,” said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. “Comcast NBCUniversal is a unique company with strong momentum. Throughout this entire process, our employees...
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From the moment the proposed $45 billion Comcast-Time Warner Cable (TWC) merger was announced over a year ago, many consumers were understandably worried about what that would mean for competition in the broadband and TV markets, not mention how it would affect their bills each month. Add that in with the fact that both companies have customer service rating that rank near the bottom and that Comcast is a two-time winner of The Consumerist’s “Worst Company in America” award, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many have been skeptical of the deal actually passing muster with regulators. Thankfully, we started hearing more of the government’s concerns over the past week with sources within the...
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The opposition to the $45 billion Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger is growing. Late last week, we reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust division is damn near close to recommending that the deal be nuked. The DOJ’s recommendations could ultimately lead to a lawsuit aimed at stopping the deal in its tracks. For its part, Comcast contends that a merger with TWC would be good for consumers. “There is no basis for a lawsuit to block the transaction,” said Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice last week. Fitzmaurice went on to add that the deal would “result in significant consumer benefits -- faster broadband speeds, access to a superior video experience, and more competition in business...
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AT&T and DirecTV are trying to convince lawmakers that a proposed $48.5 billion merger between the two companies--that’s forty-eight and a half billion dollars--and so far the best argument they have going in their favor is the promise of lower costs when comes to pricey negotiations for rights to video content. It what seems like a couple of lines from an Onion article, Reuters reports that Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) asked AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson point blank if he could promise that these cost savings will be passed on to consumers. “No sir, I can’t,” was the reply. Image Source: Flickr (Adam Kutzko) However, Stephenson did state that he hoped...
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Analysts aren't convinced that Sprint will be able to clear the regulatory hurdles required to acquire T-Mobile, especially after AT&T already tried before falling flat on its face. Despite the skepticism, investors are apparently optimistic a deal will get done -- share prices of both wireless carriers shot up more than 30 percent since news of a possible merger was first reported. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, which first broke the story, Sprint and T-Mobile flirted with the idea of a merger two years ago. Those talks ultimately stalled once Sprint decided it would be too costly to acquire T-Mobile. Had the deal happened, Sprint would have had to figure out a way to...
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Stop us if you've heard this one before: AT&T is looking to merge with a telecom...what's that, you have heard this one? Well this time it's different. AT&T isn't looking to make another run at T-Mobile, the U.S. subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, and presumably the wireless carrier learned its lesson about offering massive breakup fees as insurance against regulatory vetoes. Nevertheless, AT&T is still in the market for a merger. Specifically, AT&T is shopping telecoms in Europe to offset slow growth here in the States, The Wall Street Journal reports. A deal could be made by the end of the year, indicating that AT&T is in somewhat of a rush to make this happen. At the same...
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The AT&T - T-Mobile merger may be off the table, but T-Mobile's parent company Deutsche Telekom is walking away from the deal with a smile on its face. The communications giant released the details of what AT&T agreed to pay for the privilege of bidding on its business, and it's an impressive set of benefits. AT&T's $3B (approximately €2.29B) payment will reportedly be used to pay down DT's debts in other areas. What T-Mobile is getting is a large package of AWS spectrum in 128 market areas, including 12 of the top 20 ((Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Baltimore and Seattle). As a result, DT's population coverage...
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Know what it feels like to lose $5? How about $100? How about $4 billion. That's the write-down that AT&T is going to have to eat, and that's the size of the check that Deutsche Telekom is going to cash. After many months of lobbying every organization under the sun to green-light the AT&T / T-Mobile USA merger, both companies have today announced that they're giving it up. There will be no merger, at least not this year. At first, it seemed that this merger was destined to happen, but as the U.S. government began to balk at it, the likelihood became less and less. Now, it's just a memory. The only good thing coming from all of this? AT&T and T-Mobile have agreed to a roaming agreement,...
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The proposed merger between Google and Motorola is one step closer to completion. Recently, Motorola's stockholders voted with an overwhelming majority to approve the proposed merger with Google. At a recently held Special Meeting of Stockholders, approximately 99% of the voting shares voted in favor of the merger agreement. Approximately 74% of Motorola Mobility’s total outstanding shares of common stock were represented in this vote. The merger is still subject to various closing conditions that could delay or prevent the merger, but assuming all goes well, the merger is expected to close in early 2012. Motorola Mobility Stockholders Approve Merger with Google LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. –...
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Well, this isn't looking good for those already planning to attend the marriage of T-Mobile USA and AT&T. While it was starting to look as if the proposed merger would end with the two holding hands and riding off into the sunset, things have taken a dramatic turn today. The U.S. Department of Justice filed court papers in Washington to block the $39b acquisition, suggesting that the deal would "substantially lessen competition" in the market. Not surprisingly, AT&T's shares dropped 5 percent. That's probably because AT&T will be forced to pay T-Mobile's parent company (Deutsche Telekom AG) a staggering $3 billion if this doesn't go through, and would need to sell a ton of iPhone...
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