It’s starting to look like the AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile will not go through. Facing strong opposition from their competition and even the government, there’s a good chance that this merger will not be happening any time soon, but according to unnamed sources who claim to be familiar with the matter, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile USA’s parent company) have discussed alternatives should the deal fall through.
So instead of merging like they had originally planned, this supposed backup plan of theirs would involve a joint venture instead, pooling both their network assets together. However from an official standpoint, Deutsche Telekom has stated that there is “no plan B” and that they are focused at trying to gain the approval from the government.
However according to antitrust experts, a joint venture of this magnitude could still be looked at as a merger of sorts and would still be subject to approval. On the other side of the coin, some analysts are saying that it would actually make sense for both companies to forge a new deal should this one fall through.
Filed in . Read more about AT&T, Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile.