Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has been one of the most, if not the most, vocal opponents of AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile ever since it was announced back in mid-March. Recently Hesse allowed a rare peek into his "White Room," where he maps out his "nukes" for the battle against AT&T-Mobile as well as other big plans for his carrier. In an interview with Bloomberg, Hesse revealed that he's poured both personal and corporate resources into fighting AT&T-Mo, recruiting top tech CEOs, lobbyists, consulting groups, lawyers, and as many as 18 state regulators to aid in the battle. “Clearly, purely, we want to win and block the merger,” Hesse said. “This one poses real risks.”
Unsurprisingly, AT&T is still defending its merger with T-Mobile and fighting Sprint and all other opponents. Responding to the claims that a combined AT&T-Mobile would make prices go up, AT&T General Counsel Wayne Watts said that, "Their arguments about prices going up just defy economic logic. We’ve had wireless transactions multiple times over the last ten years and prices have gone one direction: they’ve gone down.” T-Mobile recently issued a statement in which it compared the deal's opposition to an ostrich with its head in the sand. If the acquisition is approved, Hesse believes that the mobile industry "just won’t be as innovative and as dynamic as it has been." "It’ll gum up the works when everything has to go through these two big tollbooths, one that’s called AT&T and one that’s called Verizon," the Sprint CEO said.
And so Sprint's war on the AT&T-Mobile merger continues. It's pretty admirable to see Dan Hesse taking such a strong stance against the deal and fighting so hard, and his efforts seem to have inspired others to voice their opinions on the acquisition. Whether or not all of that work will pay off remains to be seen. AT&T recently said that the merger is still on track to be approved by the end of Q1 2012.
Via Bloomberg
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