The AT&T-Mobile merger is cooked, basically. Yesterday’s turkey. AT&T’s withdrawing the deal’s application to the FCC and is looking at throwing Kardashian-sized $4 billion at the breakup fee. But wait! According to the New York Times, AT&T’s got a secret, last-ditch plan to save the merger.
The Times says that AT&T is in talks with Leap Wireless to sell the smaller carrier big chunks of T-Mobile’s customer base and some of its wireless spectrum. The notion isn’t a new one—we’d heard back in September that AT&T was considering selling off 25 percent of T-Mobile to try to slip past the FCC—but this 11th hour deal puts a face to it.
https://gizmodo.com/at-t-may-give-up-25-of-t-mobile-to-get-government-appr-5836835
Will it work? Well, it doesn’t look good. But AT&T’s too far down the rabbit hole to turn back now. [NY Times]
