They are announced, then they file for Hart Scott Rodino (in essence, approval from the DOJ) and have voting by shareholders (sometimes), get early termination of the waiting period, or wait through the waiting period, then they close.
Why wouldn't it? It's a pretty small acquisition compared to the market size, and there are still three other major players left that completely dwarf Cricket in size.
I wouldn't assume that will happen. T-Mobile is a far larger player than Leap, AT&T may well be allowed to buy them. It wouldn't be an entirely bad thing- they have a bunch of spectrum that they aren't using:
It's cheaper and better to buy off all but one competitor and then both jack up prices and provide no customer service. AT&T i hell bent on getting back together
I know that people don't like large carriers getting larger. However, this is a pretty small deal. Leap has spectrum covering only 137M POPs and not in a lot of the top markets. Verizon was recently approved to gain 20MHz nearly nationwide. This is way less than half that spectrum - probably less than a third of the spectrum Verizon was allowed to buy. Leap does come with 5M customers, but Verizon will still be the largest so it's hard to see it getting rejected on customer grounds.
I know that there's a lot of anti-deal sentiment in this thread, but this isn't a significant deal that would undermine competition in the way that the AT&T/T-Mobile deal would have merged together a lot of spectrum and customers and given AT&T more power. In fact, this deal won't even bring AT&T up to the level of customers and spectrum that authorities allowed Verizon to buy. As such, on what grounds should the FCC or DOJ disapprove of this merger?
That's the key question and those grounds have to be consistently applied. Sprint was just allowed to bring nearly 200MHz under its roof. This deal would bring AT&T to around 100MHz. Verizon was allowed to buy Alltel with loads more customers and spectrum and then buy more spectrum from SpectrumCo. The deal would leave AT&T in second place in terms of number of customers and third place in terms of spectrum.
If we really want competition in the wireless industry, I think we should contact the FCC about making sure that sub-1GHz spectrum is spread out to more companies. Sub-1GHz spectrum travels (in the real world) significantly farther than higher frequency spectrum and that's essential for more suburban and rural coverage. I think capping sub-1GHz spectrum at 45MHz (or 40MHz or 50MHz) would be pretty reasonable and ensure that we have many companies with the resources necessary to build out a good network. There's going to be an auction in the future for 600MHz spectrum and I think that's the best place to ensure competition - by making sure that AT&T and Verizon don't grab that spectrum. AT&T and Verizon currently own most of the sub-1GHz spectrum and it's allowed them to build out coverage faster and broader. In fact, Verizon's early focus on sub-1GHz spectrum certainly enabled it to become the carrier it is today (a lot of AT&T's holdings sub-1GHz are a lot newer).
Good. I don't have to answer the question of why I don't use cricket. I don't know why it came up so often but it did. Also I feel vindicated. They are the Opera of no-contract cell service providers.
Mobile phone prices per minute for non-unlimited plans have been going up ever since the Sprint/Nextel merger and thanks to this will continue to do so.
15 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 27.6 ms ] thread(And for that matter, are large M&A events like this approved by the DOJ beforehand, or are they investigated after the fact?)
It hasn't.
http://www.zdnet.com/at-and-t-picks-up-more-spectrum-with-le...
AT&T could certainly argue that they'd make better use of it.
I know that there's a lot of anti-deal sentiment in this thread, but this isn't a significant deal that would undermine competition in the way that the AT&T/T-Mobile deal would have merged together a lot of spectrum and customers and given AT&T more power. In fact, this deal won't even bring AT&T up to the level of customers and spectrum that authorities allowed Verizon to buy. As such, on what grounds should the FCC or DOJ disapprove of this merger?
That's the key question and those grounds have to be consistently applied. Sprint was just allowed to bring nearly 200MHz under its roof. This deal would bring AT&T to around 100MHz. Verizon was allowed to buy Alltel with loads more customers and spectrum and then buy more spectrum from SpectrumCo. The deal would leave AT&T in second place in terms of number of customers and third place in terms of spectrum.
If we really want competition in the wireless industry, I think we should contact the FCC about making sure that sub-1GHz spectrum is spread out to more companies. Sub-1GHz spectrum travels (in the real world) significantly farther than higher frequency spectrum and that's essential for more suburban and rural coverage. I think capping sub-1GHz spectrum at 45MHz (or 40MHz or 50MHz) would be pretty reasonable and ensure that we have many companies with the resources necessary to build out a good network. There's going to be an auction in the future for 600MHz spectrum and I think that's the best place to ensure competition - by making sure that AT&T and Verizon don't grab that spectrum. AT&T and Verizon currently own most of the sub-1GHz spectrum and it's allowed them to build out coverage faster and broader. In fact, Verizon's early focus on sub-1GHz spectrum certainly enabled it to become the carrier it is today (a lot of AT&T's holdings sub-1GHz are a lot newer).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870447190457622...
http://www.wikinvest.com/image/Att_history.jpg
So, progress...
Maybe for every 1% of the market you control, we add another .1% to your rate?
Not really sure what the right equation is, and measuring market share would be contentious...
The current system isn't without its problems though.
* UPDATE: Well, collusion would have to still be illegal, this doesn't really cover everything.
I say this as a 2-time former Cricket customer (once with a phone, once with a 3G hotspot) in a major metropolitan area.
Wonder if they're going to merge Cricket and Aio...