A big piece of news that stayed with us for most of 2011 was the proposed AT&T-T-Mobile merger. The deal was announced in March of that year and faced quite a bit of opposition throughout 2011 before AT&T ultimately decided to axe its plans to acquire the number four carrier in the U.S. Fast-forward to today, and it looks like AT&T has the acquisition itch once again.
According to sources speaking to The Wall Street Journal, AT&T is considering buying a carrier in Europe as a way to continue to grow its business and try out different pricing schemes. It's not yet known if AT&T is actually holding talks with any carriers, though Dutch company Royal AVN and U.K. carrier Everything Everywhere are said to be "on AT&T's radar." If a deal does end up happening, the tipsters expect that it could go down this year.
AT&T has yet to comment on this story, but the report cites a recent interview with Texas Monthly in which AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said that he sees an overseas expansion as "inevitable." Such a move would involve quite a few hurdles, including dealing with a new regulatory body and a bunch of new competition from European operators. Still, the acquisition itch and the desire for more growth than it can eke out of the U.S. could end up driving AT&T to actually attempt a European acquisition. What do you all make of this rumor? Do you think that it'd be wise for AT&T to try and snap up a European carrier?
