Oxymoron of the day: Exciting Volvo
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AT&T threatens to sue the FCC after withdrawing its application to buy T-Mobile USA
AGGRESSIVE TELECOM AT&T has threatened the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) with legal proceedings if it ignores the company's decision to withdraw its application to buy T-Mobile USA.
AT&T and Deutsche Telekom withdrew their FCC applications last week, leading to speculation that the wheels had finally fallen off the $39bn deal. Now AT&T has threatened the FCC noting that the firms withdrew their applications before the FCC had made any ruling on the purchase and, should the FCC not acknowledge the withdrawals, AT&T would launch legal proceedings against the FCC.
Wayne Watts, AT&T senior EVP and general counsel said, "The FCC's own rules give us this right [to withdraw applications] and provide that the FCC 'will' grant any such withdrawal. Further, this has been the FCC's own consistent interpretation of its rules. We have every right to withdraw our merger from the FCC, and the FCC has no right to stop us. Any suggestion the agency might do otherwise would be an abuse of procedure which we would immediately challenge in court."
AT&T's proposed $39bn purchase of T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom has been mired in controversy ever since its announcement. Not only had the FCC expressed concerns and ordered an 'extra review', the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has begun legal proceedings to try to block the purchase, a move so serious that AT&T and Deutsche Telekom have claimed it requires their full attention.
The DoJ regards the combination of AT&T and T-Mobile USA as anti-competitive, and it is easy to see why. In some areas consumers would be left with no choice of wireless provider, a situation that the DoJ had to forcibly break up in the 1980s.
AT&T's tough talk surely will not endear it to the FCC, a government organisation with which all US telecom companies have to work closely. µ
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AT&T must be forgetting that the DOJ issued legal proceedings to block the merger. So it isn't just the FCC that they have to worry about. Threatening the FCC with a lawsuit will guaranty the merger doesn't happen, and you know the DOJ will join their government agency brother in laying the smack down on any hope of an AT&T/T-Mobile Merger. No one is buying this Ma-Bell BS. It's not going to happen, so they can withdraw, but a stupid litigation thread by a company however big, to a government agency insures that government agency (FCC) plus the DOJ win this handicapped match against AT&T.
Down the road, AT&T is going to need FCC blessings. This nonsense pretty much insures they don't get it, even with a Republican Administration.
Thats exactly whats going on, they think they're to pull off the same thing Microsoft did in their antitrust case. Microsoft went from a breakup order to a toothless settlement thanks to a change in administration.
This saddens me, not only that AT&T thinks that a republican administration will save their ass, but the fact that its true. I vote republican, but this one part of the parties beliefs i dont stand behind. this and their religious freakishness...
"Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes!"
Corporations are getting so big, Idiocracy's prediction is becoming reality (Brawndo buying the FDA and the FCC.)
*Why* is AT&T threatening to sue the FCC? Surely the author could have dug a little deeper and told us why.
My guess is that AT&T wants to try again under a Republican administration, so they don't want a ruling against them on the books.
Lord knows Republican pandering to corporations knows no bounds.
Getcha popcorn ready, it's gonna get NASTY!
The devil is in the details.
SO ALWAYS READ YOUR *EXPLETIVE* CONTRACT BEFORE YOU SIGN!