T-Mobile Sprint merger cast into doubt once more
The US Department of Justice might not let the merger go through in its current form, according to reports.
The WSJ has the scoop, citing those handy people familiar with the matter once more, who also seem to have been chatting to Reuters. According to the latter, which isn’t paywalled, the DoJ has concerns about the deal as it’s currently structured. The news caused shares in both companies to fall and their respective CEOs to tweet coded dissent.
Both John Legere and Marcelo Claure said the article is, respectively, untrue and not accurate. While on the surface these might appear to be absolute rebuttals, it’s actually a bit more nuanced than that. Legere says the premise of the article is untrue without detailing what he thinks that premise is, while any small part of the piece could be inaccurate without the overall claim being so.
Here’s the opening paragraph of the WSJ story: “Justice Department antitrust enforcement staff have told T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. that their planned merger is unlikely to be approved as currently structured, according to people familiar with the matter, casting doubt on the fate of the $26 billion deal.”
There’s not much else to say at this stage but the process certainly seems to be dragging on. Presumably there has been some discussions between the two companies and someone on the DoJ side decided to up the pressure on TMUS and Sprint to compromise via this mini-leak. Let’s see.
The premise of this story, as summarized in the first paragraph, is simply untrue. Out of respect for the process, we have no further comment. This continues to be our policy since we announced our merger last year. https://t.co/3q9CVgkRfv key info: https://t.co/N5YvuuJtPZ
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) April 16, 2019
This @WSJ article is not accurate. We continue to have discussions with regulators about our proposed merger with @TMobile. That process is ongoing and we have no further comment. key info: https://t.co/31U7WlGehq https://t.co/QCnPBXh0I8
— MarceloClaure (@marceloclaure) April 16, 2019
