WASHINGTON: An attorney for the state attorneys general who filed a lawsuit in hopes of stopping T-Mobile's US$26 billion merger with Sprint told the judge on Monday that an Oct. 7 trial may not be possible.
In their lawsuit, filed in June, state attorneys general argued that the deal would cost consumers more than US$4.5 billion annually. The companies are in talks to sell Boost to Dish but are haggling over issues such as restrictions over who can buy the divested assets if they are sold in the future, with T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom seeking to prevent them from going to a cable or technology company.The companies told the court in late June that they were willing to refrain from closing the deal until after the state attorneys general case is completed.
"Although it is very unlikely that any settlement between Defendants and USDOJ could prevent the anticompetitive injury that the proposed merger will cause, there is no doubt that the settlement would dramatically change the nature of the evidence needed for trial," he wrote.The two companies have a July 29 deadline to complete the deal but are expected to extend it.