The elimination of one major carrier in the wireless industry isn’t necessarily a deal breaker said U.S. Justice Department antitrust Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim in his remarks on Friday to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. His response was in regard to questions about the proposed $26.5 billion merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.
“I don’t think there’s any magical number that I’m smart enough to glean about any single market,” he told Bloomberg and others following the speech. The crucial factors, Delrahim said, are the law and market economics.
Delrahim’s comment echoes the position taken by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai last year and marks a reversal of the stand regulators outlined under the Obama administration. Their insistence on a four-player market made a potential Sprint/T-Mobile merger a non-starter in 2014, Bloomberg reported.
Published June 5, 2018
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