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[ NNSquad ] AT&T/T-Mobile withdraw merger application at FCC -- "temporarily"


AT&T/T-Mobile withdraw merger application at FCC -- "temporarily"

http://j.mp/bnieNq  (ars technica)

     AT&T will also take a pretax charge of $4 billion dollars in the
     fourth quarter of this year-a move which accounts for the "breakup
     fee" it owes Deutsche Telekom if the deal falls apart.  Public
     Knowledge's Gigi Sohn, who has opposed the merger from the start, said
     today in a statement that "the chances that AT&T will take over
     T-Mobile are almost gone.... AT&T's move will, for the moment, prevent
     the FCC from making public its many, well-documented findings that the
     deal is not in the public interest and will prevent the judge
     overseeing the antitrust lawsuit from seeing the FCC's conclusions.
     Those findings would be the subject of the large and complex
     administrative hearing and process that AT&T would still need to
     survive in order to complete the $39 billion transaction."

 - - - 

"Maybe nobody will notice if we do this on Thanksgiving!"

If the merger falls apart completely now, will they (a) try again later
perhaps with a different administration? (b) try to get Congress to 
step in? (c) demand back the payoff money AT&T has been using to try
bribe groups into supporting the merger? (d) report failure to 
Lord Vader and throw themselves at his mercy?

Seriously, the big question is, what would the Germans do with 
T-Mobile USA sans the merger?  

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren 
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org 
Founder:
 - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org 
 - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
 - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com 
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com 
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein 
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com