The massive merger deal that’s been in the making since last year is going forward as planned, as T-Mobile and Sprint just scored a massive win in court. Just as had been rumored earlier this week, a federal judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of the T-Mobile-Sprint merger, rejecting the antitrust concerns raised by a group of states, including California and New York.
“The court concludes that the proposed merger is not reasonably likely to substantially lessen competition in the” mobile service market, the ruling said, adding that the merger would “enhance competition in the relevant markets to the benefit of all consumers.”
T-Mobile and Sprint said during the two-week trial in December that the deal would allow the newly formed corporation to better compete against the top two carriers in the country, Verizon and AT&T. The two carriers have also argued that a merger would allow them to accelerate the deployment of 5G so that they can better compete against Verizon and AT&T.
The resulting company would be more efficient and would be able to lower prices and provide faster internet, according to their claims. The states argued that the merger will reduce competition, and inevitably raise prices.
Before the antitrust lawsuit, the $26 billion T-Mobile-Sprint had been approved by the FCC and the Justice Department. Now that U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero dismissed the antitrust concerns, the newly formed entity should be called T-Mobile going forward, and amass around 100 million customers. The new carrier will have a new CEO in the person of Mike Sievert, who will take over from John Legere, T-Mobile’s effervescent CEO who’s largely been responsible for the revival of T-Mobile in recent years.
That said, the deal still needs to be finalized now that the antitrust problem went away.
