Leaked AT&T Letter Damages Case For T-Mobile Merger 201
An anonymous reader writes "Yesterday a partially-redacted document briefly appeared on the FCC website, accidentally posted by a law firm working for AT&T on the $39 billion T-Mobile deal (somewhere there's a paralegal looking for work today). While AT&T engaged in damage control, telling reporters that the document contained no new information, a review of the document shows that's simply not true. Data in the letter undermines AT&T's primary justification for the massive deal, while highlighting how AT&T is willing to pay a huge premium simply to reduce competition and keep T-Mobile out of Sprint's hands."
Nothing new here (Score:5, Insightful)
No, really there isn't. Corporate takeovers to stifle the competition is normal practice ( hell its the primary reason they exist ), so nothing 'new' was really released here.
Capitalism at its best (Score:5, Insightful)
It's no new information because we knew it already.
Law of Capitalism #1: Customer value directly conflicts with corporate income. If more value goes to the consumer, less value will go to the corporation.
Mergers are never for the benefit of the consumer.
AT&T is willing to pay a huge premium simply to reduce competition and keep T-Mobile out of Sprint's hands
Law of Capitalism #2: Monopolies win.
But the problem isn't with our understanding of these laws. It's with the FCC not doing it's job, and everyone involved being paid off.
Would Sprint buy T-Mobile? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sprint had (has?) a substantial problem when they bought Nextel, since it meant that they had to maintain two incompatible networks: CDMA and IDEN. Now they're going to buy a GSM carrier too? Seems silly.
Re:Merger will still happen (Score:4, Insightful)