A US judge has set 13 February 2012 as the date for the start of the trial concerning the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against AT&T’s US$39bn acquisition of T-Mobile USA, according to media reports. Bloomberg reported today that Judge Ellen Segal…
A US judge has set 13 February 2012 as the date for the start of the trial concerning the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against AT&T’s US$39bn acquisition of T-Mobile USA, according to media reports.
Bloomberg reported today that Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle had set the February date and scheduled six weeks for the trial.
AT&T said in a statement that it was hopeful that it could reach a solution with the DoJ that addresses their concerns, but if not, it would be well-prepared for a trial.
It said: “As we have stated, AT&T and [Deutsche Telekom] are working on parallel paths, regarding the DoJ’s complaint, considering solutions, while simultaneously preparing for trial.”
On 24 October, Judge Huvelle will hear AT&T’s motion to dismiss the two separate lawsuits brought against it by mobile operators Cellular South and Sprint Nextel.
The Sprint lawsuit could still be combined with the DoJ’s case in the trial next year. Nonetheless, Bloomberg reported that Huvelle had said that while she was still considering whether to combine Sprint’s case with the government’s, she probably would not do so.
Sprint’s Senior VP of Government Affairs, Vonya McCann, said in a statement: “Although the judge did not consolidate Sprint’s case with the government’s case at this time, we are pleased that the judge will hear from Sprint on the merits in oral arguments on October 24”.
