US DOJ likely to reject T-Mobile and Sprint merger

One year after US operators T-Mobile and Sprint finally finished the preliminaries and announced a merger, the proposed deal is under fire. Few ever thought the deal would get through regulators unscathed, but now we’re finally getting to the details.

DOJ has told the two carriers that it is ‘unlikely’ to approve the deal as currently structured, or at least people at the DOJ involved in the approval did, as this doesn’t appear to be a formal thing. The news adds to a growing list of regulatory objections from the states and from the FCC.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere is disputing the reports, and there is certainly sufficient motivation to adjust the deal enough to push it through. However, there is enough doubt right now that the markets didn’t take it well and sent the stock of both companies falling.

Perhaps like AT&T did for the Time Warner deal they will at some point take things to the courts.