Antitrust

AT&T's chances of completing its $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA are quickly fading as regulatory opposition to the deal mounts and the wireless giant's efforts to keep the deal on track smell of desperation.

The merger, announced in March, has been in trouble since this summer when the U.S. Department of Justice sued AT&T to block the deal. But things got uglier last week when the Federal Communications Commission said it would try to block the deal. Even though AT&T has vowed to fight on, it looks like the company … Read more

AT&T is apparently readying a Hail Mary pass to save its foundering $39 billion bid for T-Mobile. Trouble is, there's every reason to think it won't be enough.

According to Bloomberg, the telecom giant is preparing to offer a deal to the Department of Justice under which AT&T would divest as much as 40 percent of T-Mobile's assets as part of the acquisition. It's not at all clear which parts of T-Mobile AT&T might consider shedding as part of this plan.

The Justice Department filed suit to block the deal … Read more

Hewlett-Packard is calling in reinforcements from Europe to help it in its latest battle against Oracle.

The PC maker has asked European Union antitrust officials to investigate whether Oracle acted improperly by ending support for Intel's Itanium microprocessor, according to Reuters.

In June, HP launched a lawsuit against Oracle, alleging that the database giant's decision to stop making software for Itanium was simply an attempt to drive business away from HP and toward Oracle. Oracle had announced in March that it would no longer develop software for the chip. But HP has been heavily invested in using Itanium … Read more

AT&T's chances of closing its $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA are looking pretty slim as the FCC chairman officially expresses opposition to the deal. But how long will AT&T fight to keep the merger alive?

On Tuesday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski began circulating a draft order recommending to the other four FCC commissioners that the agency refer the case to an administrative law judge.

While details of the chairman's report assessing the merger have not been made public, officials told reporters on a conference call that in 99 out the … Read more

Bill Gates is scheduled to take the stand today in a Novell-versus-Microsoft antitrust case whose origins stretch back as far as 1995.

Launched in 2004 by Novell, the lawsuit alleges that Microsoft used anti-competitive tactics to hurt Novell's WordPerfect and Quattro Pro products by holding back key technical information required to make them compatible with Windows 95. Novell claims that Microsoft initially promised its support for the two applications but then pulled back to combat any potential competition against Microsoft Office.

In its suit filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, Novell is seeking $1.2 … Read more

commentary As the Department of Justice and now Sprint file suit to block AT&T's pending merger with T-Mobile USA, federal judges will begin looking closely at the deal and its potential impacts on the exploding mobile services market.

Let's hope that the kind of evidence-based, rational analysis of the courtroom does a better job separating fact from fiction than the court of public opinion, which is easily seduced by catchphrases and unrealistic scenarios. Many of the most outspoken critics of the deal, it seems, either don't understand the fundamentals of cellular technology, or assume at … Read more

AT&T could divest up to 25 percent of T-Mobile's assets to keep its $39 billion bid to buy the No. 4 carrier alive, news service Reuters reported today.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit to block AT&T from buying T-Mobile USA, which is owned by the German phone company Deutsche Telekom. AT&T vowed to fight the lawsuit, but sources close to the deal who didn't want to be named told Reuters that AT&T is also trying to line up more meetings with the Justice Department to … Read more

AT&T is prepared to offer the government some concessions in an effort to salvage its $39 billion deal to acquire T-Mobile, according to a story out today from Reuters.

The carrier has been trying to convince federal regulators and other skeptics that a merger with T-Mobile wouldn't be anti-competitive as some claim and would in fact provide benefits to consumers.

But federal agencies scrutinizing the deal are proving a hard sell, with the Federal Communications Commission dragging its heels on a decision and the Department of Justice on Wednesday filing an antitrust lawsuit aiming to block the merger.… Read more

The Justice Department is looking to put the kibosh on AT&T's $39 billion deal for T-Mobile. So what does this mean for T-Mobile, the smallest and weakest of the four national wireless carriers?

The future of T-Mobile is the big unanswered question after the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday seeking to block AT&T's merger.

It is clear that that the Justice Department wants T-Mobile to remain an independent competitor in the market. In its lawsuit to block the merger the Justice Department called T-Mobile a "disruptive&… Read more