‘AT&T is certain to lose’ lawsuit with DOJ, former FCC chairman says

Former FCC chairman Reed Hundt voiced his opinion on the Department of Justice’s decision to sue AT&T in an effort to block its planned $39 billion merger with T-Mobile USA. “AT&T is certain to lose,” Hundt told SNL. “They can litigate the case to death,” he said noting that the acquisition was anti-competitive. “It’s an extremely easy case. The Department of Justice will win the case in court. No question about it.” According to SNL, AT&T believed federal regulators would consider the acquisition based on a market-to-market analysis, rather than nationwide analysis. Hundt said the DOJ will instead determine whether the deal is anti-competitive or not based on both national and market-by-market investigations. Until recently, AT&T was confident that the acquisition would be approved by March 2012. AT&T vowed to contest the DOJ lawsuit and said it is confident the merger is in the best interest of consumers, and “the facts will prevail in court.” The carrier also said it would consider selling off 25% of T-Mobile USA in an effort to sway federal regulators toward an approval. Deutsche Telekom’s CEO Rene Obermann said on Thursday that both firms “have everything under control.”

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