AT&T CEO Hints at Possible Support for T-Mobile/Sprint Deal OK, New Street Analysts Say
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson "suggested" he "would be supportive of approving" T-Mobile's planned buy of Sprint "with no conditions, but would not support one with conditions that empowered a new competitor like DISH or Cable," New Street Research analysts wrote…
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investors Sunday, citing a discussion with him at an AT&T analyst day Thursday. The discussion took place after the webcast event, analyst Vivek Stalam told us Monday. Stephenson "noted that a large number of Democratic states’ attorneys general might oppose the deal or demand such a condition," the analysts wrote: "Interesting that he would express support in a way that would, if taken as evidence of the deal’s likely impact, undercut the odds of approval, but we don’t think the DOJ staff or others will take his comments as evidence. We do agree with him that the states’ attorneys general remain a risk but would add that some Republican states’ attorneys general, such as in Tennessee, are also apparently involved [in] state efforts to study and perhaps litigate to block the deal." AT&T didn't comment. The proposed transaction raises "considerable competitive harms ... with few, if any, countervailing, merger-related public interest benefits," filed the Communications Workers of America on meeting FCC staffers, including a 50-page presentation posted Monday in docket 18-197. CWA said the deal would result in "fewer jobs and higher prices" and "concentrate valuable spectrum in a combined T-Mobile/Sprint in almost two-thirds" of counties. T-Mobile and Sprint oppose a CWA motion seeking deal hearings at the New York Public Service Commission (see 1812030029).