(2011-03-25) Att Wants To Buy Tmobile

ATT wants to buy T-Mobile. As if there's too much competition in WireLess?

Jun07 update: Eight technology giants, including FaceBook and Microsoft, and 10 venture capital firms, filed letters supporting the acquisition late on Monday... Here are the four letters submitted to the F.C.C. One is from Microsoft, FaceBook, Oracle, Yahoo, Research in Motion (RIM), Qualcomm, Ava Ya and Bro Cade. The second is from KleinerPerkins. The third is from Sequoia Capital. And the fourth is from a group of eight Venture Capitalist-s, including Mr. Haque and Mr. Auerbach. CharlesRiverVentures, MatrixPartners, RadarPartners (2), NewVenturePartners, TechnologyCrossoverVentures, NorwestVenturePartners, LightspeedVentures. Suckers.

Aug31 update: the Do J is suing to block the merger! The FCC hasn't made any decisions yet.

• If the court accepts the arguments from AT&T and its defenders that the traditional measures of concentration are irrelevant, then antitrust review of mergers will essentially end for the next 5-10 years while economists and antitrust enforcers struggle to develop a new set of metrics for predicting the likely impact of mergers.