AfterDawn: News

AT&T may have to dump $8 billion worth of assets

AT&T has hired investment bankers to advise it on the sale of spectrum and possibly customers, assets that could be worth $8 billion.

The dump of assets will be one of many concessions expected of the company in its effort to purchase T-Mobile for $39 billion.



AT&T gave a standard response (via Cnet):

As we said on the day we announced the merger with T-Mobile USA, we anticipate there will be some divestitures, as we have had in past mergers, but any speculation about the amount of divestitures is premature.

Regional carriers, like US Cellualr and MetroPCS will eagerly buy up spectrum if it becomes available, as will behemoth Verizon.

Last week, a partially-redacted document accidentally posted by a law firm under contract for AT&T leaked online, via the FCC website revealing that what AT&T has been saying about job gains and network investment with the T-Mobile deal are just untrue. Read that here: Leaked AT&T letter puts damper on potential T-Mobile acquisition

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Aug 2011 11:29

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• 10 comments

• baxter00

  Yeah sure. I really feel no love loss for AT&T. I hope they do sell off their assets, and I DO hope their merger is DENIED. Then I hope someone kicks them in the teeth for thinking they deserve to have bigger purses and deeper pockets.
  

  15.8.2011 12:36 #1

• KillerBug

  AT&T knows how corrupt the government is; they wouldn't be doing this in public right after admitting that this is just an anti-trust violation if the government wasn't. They are basically saying,
  
  "We are cutting jobs and reducing service quality, and we would like to buy our main competitor so that we could keep customers in spite of the terrible service through a monopoly shared with Verizon who will offer much better service, at an even higher price. If you let us buy T-Mobile, we will cut even more jobs...now, will you OK our deal?"
  
  ...and they would be saying that if they hadn't already bought the decision.
  

  
  

  15.8.2011 12:39 #2

• plutonash

  If this does get approved..will anyone really benefit from it besides ATT? Will it not take a few years before the frequencies are the same and people can enjoy the stability of one giant gsm carrier?
  

  "Cable thief is a victimless crime."

  15.8.2011 13:56 #3

• LordRuss

  Originally posted by KillerBug: ...and they would be saying that if they hadn't already bought the decision. And that's why the stink about the email leak is basically 'nill'. Like everybody else on this planet (sarcastically speaking), they're going to ask for forgiveness rather than for permission. However in this case they bought their permission & will probably strong-arm Tmobile into the merger.
  
  Money & greed.
  

  http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

  15.8.2011 17:07 #4

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by plutonash: If this does get approved..will anyone really benefit from it besides ATT? Will it not take a few years before the frequencies are the same and people can enjoy the stability of one giant gsm carrier? Verizon will benefit, and Virgin mobile already has.
  

  
  

  15.8.2011 23:30 #5

• plutonash

  Originally posted by KillerBug: Originally posted by plutonash: If this does get approved..will anyone really benefit from it besides ATT? Will it not take a few years before the frequencies are the same and people can enjoy the stability of one giant gsm carrier? Verizon will benefit, and Virgin mobile already has. Hmm, how so? You think people will refuse to go to ATT and just jump ship to Verizon?
  
  

  "Cable thief is a victimless crime."

  16.8.2011 02:35 #6

• KillerBug

  I know this is an odd concept for some people, but a lot of people need to be able to make and receive phone calls from anywhere, on the first try. There are also people who need to use mobile internet from almost anywhere. At the moment, the only choices are AT&T and Verizon...Verizon has better service at a higher price, and AT&T generally works within three tries (as long as it is not an incoming call).
  
  Everyone else is building towers, trying their best to keep up. Everyone except AT&T...in spite of the fact that they don't have enough towers, and they are not building towers, AT&T seems to want to sell off what few resources they have. When they do this, people who actually need service will go to Verizon, and people who just want a shinny smart phone that can't go online or make calls will go to Virgin mobile.
  
  The only variable is sprint...they are a terrible company with terrible service, but they are building a lot of towers and they will be better than AT&T after AT&T gets done shooting themselves in the feet, hands, and head. They will undoubtedly get a lot of customers that overload their infrastructure...but the profits should pay for them to build more towers; they might even be able to take the place of T-Mobile (low prices with service that is just barely acceptable, at least in some areas) so that AT&T buys them too.
  

  
  

  16.8.2011 03:40 #7

• hearme0

  ATT is just lying about everything in order to con the DOJ into approval of an act that will essentially dwindle our consumer cellular choice down 20%. 20% people..........never gonna be approved.

  16.8.2011 11:07 #8

• senator29

  i know roughly 30 people with Tmobile including myself and my family. not a single person is staying with Tmobile. most are waiting for the deal to be granted before leaving but several are switching now.
  
  at&t will take a huge hit, stock will flat line, customers will drop like flies. then they lower prices, gain huge customer base again, raise prices and start shoving spiked polls up their customers all over again. all this will occur while several top gov officials bank on the roller coaster stock prices, probably at least one of them will be responsible for approving the merge.
  
  this country is getting dirtier than my toilet and i don't keep it as clean as it should be.
  
  p.s. i must say that it was a shock to see the leaked document posted on the FCC website. never thought that would be the place.
  

  19.8.2011 21:16 #9

• dec42

  AT&T SUCKS. I have been with ATT for about 10years.
  in 2009 I perchased an Iphone. I paid the premmum price
  of $850 because i didnt need the data plan and i didnt
  want to be tied to a 2 year contract. This week they added the data plan at about $30. per month after taxes They said all smart phones
  require a data plan. ATT is the onely service in my area

  22.8.2011 22:08 #10