Now that T-Mobile and Sprint have agreed to merge, regulators will examine the deal and determine whether or not it should be allowed to go through. We’ll have to wait for an actual decision on that matter, but one government official did weigh in on the matter.
Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust division, has said that the reduction of major U.S. carriers from four to three doesn’t necessarily guarantee that T-Mobile and Sprint’s deal will be blocked. “I don’t think there’s any magical number that I’m smart enough to glean about any single market,” Delrahim said.
That doesn’t guarantee that the deal will gain approval from regulators, though, as Delrahim went on to explain that it’s still necessary to examine the econmics of the merger. “If economics dictate that a particular transaction violates the antitrust laws that’s what they do,” he said.
Delrahim’s statements are notable because he is leading a review of the T-Mobile and Sprint merger. The deal is still subject to a full review, and it’s possible that the DoJ could come out against a combined T-Mobile-Sprint. Delrahim’s words could be a glimmer of hope for people who want this merger to pass, though, especially after T-Mo and Sprint’s previous attempts to merge were met with some resistance from those at the DoJ.
Source: Bloomberg