“AT&T Inc is approaching smaller rivals including MetroPCS Communications Inc. and Leap Wireless International Inc. to sell spectrum and subscribers as part of an attempt to save its $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile USA Inc., said two people with direct knowledge of the situation,” Serena Saitto and Jeffrey McCracken report for Bloomberg.
“The phone company, based in Dallas, has also reached out to CenturyLink Inc., Dish Network Corp. and Sprint Nextel Corp. to gauge their interest in buying assets, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private,” Saitto and McCracken report. “AT&T is seeking ways to salvage its agreement to buy T- Mobile USA from Bonn-based Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) after the Justice Department sued on Aug. 31 to stop the deal.”
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Saitto and McCracken report, “The talks with competitors are preliminary and may not lead to a deal, and the Justice Department may also deem the remedies insufficient, the people said.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
a wanton seductress with $6 – $7 billion in pending accounts payable will do or say anything. Think the character Adria from SG-1 season 10.
Let me get this straight: At&T wants its competitors to sell their spectrum and customers to AT&T so it can become bigger so that it may buy T-Mobile and become the biggest carrier in the country. At the same time AT&T wants to sell other parts of itself to other competitors so the DoJ will approve their merger.
This is what happens when you let MBAs and lawyers loose upon the world.
Perhaps it’s been written wrong. I believe the article is stating that AT&T is selling off spectrum and subscribers. Am I wrong? That would make more sense, as they are seeking to level the field and give their competitors more $$$.
Interesting and Microsoft invested 150million when Apple was down on it’s game too.
You’re all wet, Goober.
WF, you do realize that Apple had several billion (yea, that’s billion with a b) in the bank (cash) at the time that MS purchased 150 Million worth of common stock?
Oh yeah… they really needed someone to purchase 150m in common stock… not.
What it was about (if you actually want to gain a scintilla of clue) was a show of “good faith”. More important (and a part of the agreement) was a commitment to continue develop orifice for the mac for at least 5 years, in exchange for making exploder the default browser (MS needed that so they could finish squeezing the life out of netscape)
AT&T stands to lose a lot of money if the T-Mobile deal is squashed. So a smart company might get some wireless assets on the cheap (hey, Apple!).