Texas is joining the fight to block T-Mobile USA Inc.’s acquisition of Sprint Corp. The action comes a week after their transaction was approved by the Department of Justice with conditions. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is the first Republican to join the states’ lawsuit that was filed in June.
At the same time, a Southern District Court in New York moved the trial’s start from October to December.
Attorneys General from 14 states and the District of Columbia sought the extra time to incorporate the latest merger agreement details and conditions into their case. The action essentially guarantees the transaction will not close until 2020, unless the lawsuit is settled before then, according to Broadcasting and Cable.
Paxton will lead the AGs antitrust suit with his Democratic counterparts in California and New York, a lawyer for the states said at a hearing Thursday in Manhattan federal court, Bloomberg reported. “While we appreciate the time and effort that went into the agreement between the parties and the U.S. Department of Justice, the Texas attorney general has an independent obligation to protect Texas consumers,” Paxton said in a statement. “We do not anticipate that the proposed new entrant will replace the competitive role of Sprint anytime soon,” he added, referring to Dish.
“We welcome Texas’s resolve to block this anticompetitive merger,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “We are more confident than ever that enforcing our antitrust laws — as they were meant to be enforced — is the best way to protect competition in the mobile marketplace.”
August 5, 2019
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