AT&T WILLING TO MAKE HUGE CONCESSIONS TO ACQUIRE T-MOBILE'S USA ASSETS

AT&T may propose to divest as much as 40% of T-Mobile USA’s assets in an effort to win approval from the Department of Justice in an upcoming lawsuit against the government agency. The DOJ sued to block the merger on August 31st, when it said “AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low-priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market.” AT&T is planning to divest a lower percentage of spectrum and a higher share of T-Mobile USA’s customers, Bloomberg said Monday. The divestiture may not be enough to add balance to the market, however. “It’s unlikely that the DOJ would allow a big competitor like Verizon to purchase the assets,” Macquarie Securities analyst Kevin Smithen told Bloomberg, which means AT&T may need to rely on smaller regional carriers to pick up the customers and spectrum.

“[DOJ] guidelines require that any settlement or remedy replace the market power T-Mobile currently brings to the marketplace,” Sprint’s spokesperson for public policy John Taylor wrote on his personal blog. “Any new entity would have to create a nationwide network comparable to T-Mobile’s, which covers 97% of America… [and] offer exclusive handsets, just as T-Mobile does each year. AT&T would have to divest enough T-Mobile customers to ensure that any new entity or purchaser of the assets would have the same market share T-Mobile enjoys.”

Wall Street isn’t so sure the divestiture will help AT&T’s cause, either. “Realistically, AT&T is going to take its chances in court in February,” Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffet said. “It’s all or nothing.”

On November 24th, AT&T withdrew its original application from the FCC to acquire T-Mobile USA and said it will instead focus on its lawsuit with the Department of Justice, which kicks off in February, before it reapplies for the FCC’s approval of the acquisition.

NOKIA OWES ROMANIA MORE THAN $10 MILLION, ASSETS BEING SEIZED

Nokia’s local assets were seized by Romanian tax authorities on Friday after it was revealed the company’s Romania-based subsidiary owes the government $10 million, Bloomberg said Friday. “We decided to seize the assets as a precautionary measure to prevent Nokia from selling them before they pay their debt to the state,” head of Romania’s tax authority Sorin Blejnar said. “This won’t affect the activity of the factory.”

Nokia announced in September that it would close its operations in the country, although the origin of the vendor’s $10 million in debt is unclear.

According to Convert News, the debt may be related to bills that Nokia owes for transporting its materials in the country. Nokia has not yet commented publicly on the situation.

METROPCS IN TALKS TO ACQUIRE POST AT&T/T-MOBILE MERGER ASSETS

The likelihood of a successful acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T may largely depend on what the latter is willing to give up. The largest GSM carrier in the US may need to throw a few assets overboard in order to satisfy the Department of Justice, and has reportedly been Rethinking Possible by engaging in discussions with several parties interested in scooping up the leftovers. According to Bloomberg, MetroPCS appears to be the frontrunner in the talks, and plans to meet with the Justice Department (alongside AT&T, of course) in the next two weeks to determine if the strategy will appease the regulating body. No guarantees here, of course: it seems like a lot of assets would have to change hands for MetroPCS -- a regional carrier with roughly nine million subscribers -- to be considered a large enough competitor to assuage the government's concerns here. We can't imagine the Feds would be satisfied with any small offering, considering the Department's filed a lawsuit against Ma Bell to block the merger.