U.S. Dept. of Justice counters AT&T with a request to delay T-Mobile acquisition trial

Since late last month, when AT&T pulled its FCC application for the T-Mobile merger deal in the USA, we’ve been waiting for the Department of Justice to respond. Now, the DOJ has asked a Federal judge for a delay in the trial because of the move by the telecom, reports the Wall Street Journal.

With the announcement that the FCC would seek to review AT&T’s acquisition of Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile USA by sending it to an administrative law judge for review, both AT&T and T-Mobile withdrew their applications.

Since the applications have been pulled, the urgency of the case is now in question, as the deal could be altered, rendering it unnecessary or invalid. So now the DOJ has asked for a delay and may even withdraw the case. If AT&T re-files the application with the FCC, then they may re-institute the case.

A decision will be reached by December 15th. If the case is delayed, then the expected February decision may be pushed back as well. AT&T has argued that this might cause the $39B deal to collapse altogether, a move that could cost them $4 billion in break up fees to Deutsche Telekom.