UPDATE The U.S. Department of Justice today announced its approval of the $26 billion merger deal between T-Mobile and Sprint, with certain concessions.
The DOJ wanted Deutsche Telekom, parent company of T-Mobile, to sell assets like wireless spectrum licenses and Boost Mobile to help conserve competition in the cellular market. As part of the agreement, Sprint will divest its Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Sprint prepaid phone businesses. Sprint and T-Mobile will divest some of their wireless spectrum to Dish Network and make at least 20,000 cell sites and hundreds of retail stores available to the company, reported CNBC.
Makan Delrahim, head of the DOJ’s antitrust division, said the agreement establishes Dish as a “disruptive force in wireless.” Dish will also be able to access T-Mobile’s network for seven years.
A major sticking point in the months-long negotiations was a lawsuit filed by several state attorneys general, seeking to block the deal on anti-competitive grounds.
Friday, state attorneys general from Nebraska, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota signed onto the agreement, reported CNBC. However, T-Mobile and Sprint still face an ongoing lawsuit from 13 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia seeking to block the deal on anti-competitive grounds.
The merger cannot be finalized until after that case is resolved. The trial is set to begin on October 7, but that date could be pushed back until December 9, given the structural changes to the merger announced today.
July 26, 2019
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