merger

AT&T finally ditched its plan to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion on Monday, after months of intense lobbying.

AT&T blamed regulators for the deal's demise, and the company said in a statement that consumers would be harmed and investment would be stifled as a result. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission--the two agencies that opposed the deal--said that AT&T's decision to abandon its purchase was a victory for consumers.

"Consumers won today," Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division Sharis A. Pozen … Read more

From the outset, it appeared that AT&T had all the political elbow grease it needed to complete its ultimately failed takeover of rival carrier T-Mobile.

Yet pressure from Sprint, the Department of Justice (DOJ), antitrust interests, and finally the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had AT&T fighting to revise the terms of its buyout proposal. Today, after a nine-month drama of diminishing opportunities to pass the merger, AT&T finally threw in the towel.

Although the deal may have been doomed for some time, early signs pointed to AT&T pocketing T-Mobile's assets. It … Read more

Not long ago, I wrote a piece speculating on what T-Mobile would do if the AT&T deal fell apart.

Well, looks like "if" has come true. So I thought I'd go back to some highlights from the earlier post.

By itself, T-Mobile is a wireless operator struggling to keep its best customers from leaving. Over the past several months, the carrier has aggressively cut prices and made itself a haven for bargain seekers--all for the sake of sparking a little growth. As a result, it resembles a large prepaid carrier more than one of the … Read more

Christmas came early for Sprint today when AT&T announced that it was abandoning its controversial $39 billion bid to acquire T-Mobile.

In a statement released moments ago, Vonya B. McCann, Sprint's senior vice president of Government Affairs, said AT&T made the "right decision for consumers, competition and innovation in the wireless industry."

"From the beginning, Sprint has stood with consumers who spoke loudly and clearly that AT&T's proposed takeover of T-Mobile would create an undeniable duopoly that would have resulted in higher prices, less innovation and fewer choices for … Read more

Dish Network is sitting pretty right now.

The demise of AT&T's $39 billion deal to acquire T-Mobile leaves AT&T in a vulnerable position, that of a company in need of wireless spectrum but with few sources from whom to acquire it.

Verizon Wireless has only exacerbated the dilemma with its own move to acquire spectrum held by the cable providers, which shores up its own position. The broadcasters, meanwhile, have been sitting on a stash of spectrum and have been fighting attempts by the Federal Communications Commission to repurpose it for the wireless industry.

AT&… Read more

AT&T said today that it has withdrawn its bid to acquire T-Mobile USA in a deal worth $39 billion.

The company said it would take a $4 billion charge in the fourth quarter as part of the break-up fee with Deutsche Telekom. The companies had agreed to this break-up fee when they formed the deal, which was announced in March. AT&T said the companies will also enter into a mutually beneficial roaming agreement.

There had been much speculation about how long AT&T would fight to keep its deal with T-Mobile alive. In August, the … Read more

AT&T may be shifting gears as it prepares to abandon its original plan to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper reported today that talks between AT&T and the U.S. Department of Justice to come up with an acceptable plan for the wireless giant to buy T-Mobile have stalled. The Justice Department sued AT&T in August to stop the planned merger, stating that such a merger would hurt competition.

Since then AT&T has considered divesting or giving up certain parts of the T-Mobile network … Read more

As we told you earlier this week, the controversial tale of the AT&T-T-Mobile merger may be coming to an end.

Editor's note: On Monday, December 19, AT&T announced that it was abandoning its T-Mobile bid completely.

I say "may" because the deal could still (and probably will) happen, but with both the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice opposing the $39 billion acquisition (not to mention AT&T withdrawing its application), the carrier will have to heavily revise the terms to get it approved. And now, with AT&… Read more

Semiconductor equipment maker Lam Research has agreed to acquire rival Novellus Systems in an all-stock deal worth $3.3 billion, the companies announced today.

The combined venture is expected to benefit from the individual companies' complementary product capabilities, with Novellus' thin-film application technology aligning with Lam's business of etching the film to create features that define a chip's final use and function.

Under the agreement's terms Novellus stockholders will get 1.125 shares of Lam common stock for each Novellus share, a premium of about 28 percent higher than Novellus' $34.70 closing price Wednesday. When the … Read more