Judge to reconsider DoJ's AT&T antitrust suit

Late last month AT&T withdrew its application with the FCC to acquire T-Mobile, in an attempt, it said, to focus on winning approval from the Department of Justice, first. Now a district court judge is considering dismissing the US' antitrust suit against ole Ma Bell. According to Bloomberg, the DoJ is looking to either "withdraw without prejudice" or "stay" the suit, as a result of AT&T pulling its application from the FCC. Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle scheduled a hearing for December 15th to decide whether the deal is still possible in the proposed timeframe and the suit still worth pursuing. She had this to say:

We don't have any confidence that we are spending all this time and effort and the taxpayers money and that we're not being spun. The landscape has changed.

AT&T's lawyers remained steadfast, however, demanding the company's "day in court," and reiterating that approval from the DoJ would improve its chances of getting the thumbs-up from the FCC. For more sordid details on this legal ping-pong match, hit the source link below.

Judge to reconsider DoJ's AT&T antitrust suit originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/09/judge-to-reconsider-dojs-atandt-antitrust-suit/

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