Public Knowledge Sees Chances of AT&T Takeover Of T-Mobile ‘Almost Gone’
Public Knowledge Sees Chances of AT&T Takeover Of T-Mobile ‘Almost Gone’
Public Knowledge Sees Chances of AT&T Takeover Of T-Mobile ‘Almost Gone’

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    Background: AT&T
    said late yesterday it would withdraw its application to take over
    T-Mobile from the Federal Communications Commission, while continuing
    to fight the antitrust case from the Justice Dept. in court. It
    would also take a $4 billion charge against earnings.

    The following
    statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of
    Public Knowledge:

    “After today’s
    actions, the chances that AT&T will take over T-Mobile are almost
    gone. While you can never count out AT&T entirely, the fact that
    they pulled their FCC application speaks volumes about the company’s
    lack of confidence that it could prove in a legal setting at the FCC
    the claims it spent millions of dollars to make about job creation
    and rural deployment of broadband, among other issues.

    “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.

    “We hope that
    AT&T would similarly withdraw its application from the Justice
    Department and end this charade once and for all.”