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….for $39 billion from Deutsche Telekom, a German company, for both cash and stock. Of course, this deal will need regulatory approval which should be no problem as AT&T can buy the okay for the purchase.
When approved, AT&T will be the biggest U.S. wireless carrier, ahead of Verizon, the current champ. AT&T will pick up some 34 million new customers and revenue will jump from the current $58.5 billion in 2010 up to an estimated $80 billion.
"This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nation's future," said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and chief executive.
"It will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced... capabilities to more than 294 million people.
"Mobile broadband networks drive economic opportunity everywhere, and they enable the expanding high-tech ecosystem that includes device makers, cloud and content providers, app developers, customers, and more."
According to data from comScore, AT&T held a 26.6% market share of US mobile subscribers in December 2010, while T-Mobile accounted for 12.2% of the market. Verizon, meanwhile, accounted for 31.3%.
The deal will give AT&T a big boost in its rivalry with Verizon, which recently started selling the Apple iPhone with an end to the AT&T monopoly.
Analysts said the deal also helps AT&T in the so-called 4G sector offering more advanced wireless services.
"AT&T has been under attack for not being able to match the network capacity of larger rival Verizon," said MG Siegler of the technology blog TechCrunch.
"And when they won the majority of the bids for the open spectrum in 2008, Verizon also had a clear path to the future. Now AT&T is taking another path: buying T-Mobile."
Isn’t that just peachy? AT&T gets bigger while their customer services goes even farther down the toilet. Also, they may say no, but you will be paying more for half-assed service and less than steller service plans.
I have been a customer of AT&T, and even though their local customer service was great, the people on the other side of the phone, when using “ 800 “ service, was the pits. Not to mention that I had 2 AT&T towers, one on each side of me, less than 2 miles away and I had to hike up a hill to get service.
The monopoly continues to grow once again. Let us wait to see what Verizon does in response.
