AT&T's bid to acquire T-Mobile continued to falter Friday, with the Department of Justice asking a judge to postpone an upcoming trial.
According to the Dow Jones, DOJ lawyers said they will ask the court to delay the trial, now set for February, until AT&T refiles its merger application with the Federal Communications Commission.
It's a bit of a Catch-22, however, because AT&T has said it has no plans to refile with the FCC until the DOJ case is finalized.
"We are anxious to bring to the American consumer the benefits of increased wireless network capacity and efficiencies that can only arise from combining the resources of AT&T and T-Mobile USA," Wayne Watts, AT&T senior executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement. "We are eager to present our case in court."
The DOJ sued to block the merger earlier this year after it found that the deal was not in the public interest. A merger of this nature must be approved by the DOJ and the FCC.
Today's hearing, conducted in a D.C. district court by Judge Ellen S. Huvelle, is the first time AT&T and the DOJ are back in court since AT&T pulled its merger application from the FCC over the Thanksgiving holiday. That came after the FCC also said the AT&T/T-Mobile deal was not in the public interest and would result in massive job layoffs. Technically, the FCC cannot reject a deal, however. It can only approve, approve with conditions, or recommend an administrative law trial. The commission recommended the trial, which would have started after the conclusion of the DOJ's case.
Rather than deal with that, AT&T pulled its application and said it would focus on the DOJ case and refile with the FCC at a later date. In court today, however, Judge Huvelle was apparently irked by AT&T's decision to withdraw from the FCC.
"The landscape has changed—it has clearly changed," Huvelle said, according to the Dow Jones.
Sprint and C Spire, which have both filed suits to stop the merger, were pleased with today's events.
"As evidenced in court today, there are serious concerns about the future of AT&T's bid to takeover T-Mobile," Vonya McCann, senior vice president of government affairs for Sprint, said in a statement. "We share those concerns and we continue to prepare for trial in our antitrust suit."
Eric Graham, vice president for for strategic and government relations for C Spire (formally Cellular South), said that AT&T's withdrawal from the FCC "introduced significant uncertainty into the ongoing Department of Justice antitrust litigation, calling into question whether it actually intends to go forward with this anti-competitive transaction."
"We believe that the evidence presented will clearly demonstrate that this takeover is bad for consumers, competition and the American economy," Graham continued.
Consumer group Public Knowledge, which has also opposed the deal and was in attendance at today's hearing, said AT&T has until Wednesday to file a reply, with a follow-up hearing scheduled for Dec. 15 at 2:30pm.
"AT&T sketched out a fantasy scenario to gain approval of a deal which is in itself a fantasy, as the comprehensive FCC staff report found," said Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge. "Rather than cost taxpayers and private companies millions of dollars in fees to pursue this fantasy, AT&T should abandon a transaction which will raise prices, hurt consumers and stifle innovation."
In the wake of AT&T withdrawing from the FCC, the commission released a (redacted) staff report that summarized its findings about the deal. AT&T was not pleased, calling it biased and hypocritical.