AT&T to buy T-Mobile
AT&T said Sunday it had agreed to buy T-Mobile USA from Germany’s Deutsche Telekom in a $39-billion blockbuster deal enabling it to overtake Verizon as the biggest US wireless provider.
The cash-and-stock deal, which needs regulatory approval, will give AT&T 34 million new customers and lift its annual wireless revenues to around $80 billion from $58.5 billion in 2010.
It will add to AT&T earnings in the third year after the deal closes, the company said, and help it compete with market leader Verizon.
“This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nation’s future,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and chief executive.
“It will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced… capabilities to more than 294 million people.
“Mobile broadband networks drive economic opportunity everywhere, and they enable the expanding high-tech ecosystem that includes device makers, cloud and content providers, app developers, customers, and more.”
According to data from comScore, AT&T held a 26.6% market share of US mobile subscribers in December 2010, while T-Mobile accounted for 12.2% of the market. Verizon, meanwhile, accounted for 31.3%.
The deal will give AT&T a big boost in its rivalry with Verizon, which recently started selling the Apple iPhone with an end to the AT&T monopoly.
Analysts said the deal also helps AT&T in the so-called 4G sector offering more advanced wireless services.
“AT&T has been under attack for not being able to match the network capacity of larger rival Verizon,” said MG Siegler of the technology blog TechCrunch.
“And when they won the majority of the bids for the open spectrum in 2008, Verizon also had a clear path to the future. Now AT&T is taking another path: buying T-Mobile.”
Great, I went to T-Mobile a few years back to get away from AT&T. Guess I might have to jump to Verizon.