Saw Hesse interview and the article didn't cover all of what he said. Hesse also stated that while he felt the deal would be bad for the customers, it would be good for the company and the stockholders. In addition, he felt Sprint would benefit from it because Sprint would become the bargain carrier many customers want; and, he was shocked that the price for T-Mobile was $39 Billion. Considering that Sprint has far more spectrum and other assets than T-Mobile, he felt if anyone were considering Sprint, they would get a much higher price than he thought before this deal was announced.
Will the deal go through? I think it will for a couple reasons and these reasons are all covered by many analysts this week. I just happen to agree with them. Mostly it has to do with the timing of the deal in that today the DOJ and FCC are less likely to nix this deal because of what AT&T promised will be an outcome of their acquisition. At some risk of mentioning politics here, I will proceed. It is is deemed inappropriate, please delete the post. During the election, a campaign promise by PBO was that he will put together a plan to insure broadband coverage to over 95% of the nation. To enable all rural residents access to internet broadband. AT&T has announced that as a result of this merger of resources, AT&T / T-Mobile combination will build out the LTE to cover over 95% of all the nation. It is likely that under White House pressure the deal will be granted as it follows the President's promise to America. We consumers may not like the rates that will be charged but he didn't make any promise the commitment will be cheap. I suspect this will be part of the approval which makes the DOJ look the other way in respect to anti-trust and too little competition.