Settlement Unlikely Before T-Mobile/Sprint Trial, Analysts Say
States attorneys general look likely to win against T-Mobile/Sprint, based on pretrial memos last week at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (see 1911270049), New Street's Blair Levin wrote Monday. That’s “particularly due to weaknesses we…
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see in the companies' market definition, reliance on economic arguments with little support in antitrust precedent, a zig-zag approach to the DOJ and FCC’s judgments, a reliance on behavioral remedies to justify the fix and a reliance on public interest considerations, such as social or industrial policy, that generally are considered irrelevant to competition analysis.” The judge could still rule the carriers' way by “fashioning his own remedies,” the analyst told investors: Texas and Nevada settled with T-Mobile last week (see 1911250050), but carriers probably won't avoid trial Monday. Odds of states and T-Mobile making a pact before trial are low, “although the company will likely be pushing hard even in the final hours before the trial starts,” wrote LightShed Partners' Walter Piecyk and Joe Galone. Tunney Act review at U.S. District Court in Washington could finish this week, the analysts said. It “would be odd” if Judge Timothy Kelly, a Donald Trump appointee, didn't clear the deal, and that approval would bolster the carriers’ case in New York, they said.