AT&T has decided to end its $39 billion bid for T-Mobile USA, the company announced in a statement Dec. 19.
“AT&T will continue to be aggressive in leading the mobile Internet revolution,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson wrote in that statement. “Over the past four years, we have invested more in our networks than any other U.S. company.”
The statement also alluded to “actions by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice” to block the transaction, something AT&T said would not “change the realities of the U.S. wireless industry.” The carrier added that acquiring T-Mobile “would have offered an interim solution” to spectrum shortage, and that “in the absence of such steps, customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.”
In the wake of the collapsing deal, AT&T will pay T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom some $4 billion in breakup fees, which will show up as a pretax accounting charge in the fourth quarter of 2011. It will also enter into what the statement described as a “mutually beneficial roaming agreement” with Deutsche Telekom, although further details were not disclosed.
Last week, AT&T and the Justice Department had mutually agreed to stay a looming antitrust trial over the acquisition. The judge in that case agreed with the motion, and set Jan. 12 as the date for AT&T to file a report detailing any revised plans for the acquisition. In the interim, though, the carrier decided to scuttle its ambitious plans altogether.
