Deutsche Telekom reached an agreement last October to purchase regional carrier MetroPCS and combine it with T-Mobile. The deal was expected to cost the parent company $1.5 billion in cash and a 26 percent stake in the combined company pending regulatory approval.
While the deal hasn’t yet gained approval from all of the necessary parties, the Department of Justice has given the merger the green light. The next step in the process is to gain approval from the Federal Communications Commission, the Committee on Foreign Investment and finally, MetroPCS shareholders.
The latter group is expected to vote on the deal on April 12 and naturally, officials are encouraging shareholders to vote in favor of the merger. Of course, not everyone believes it is a great idea as some shareholders feel the deal will land them in further debt and there isn’t enough value in the deal for MetroPCS.
Paulson & Co., the company’s largest shareholder at 8.7 percent, said they were going to withhold their vote until they see the final proxy statement submitted during the meeting. Schoenfeld Asset Management, an advisor that owns 2 percent of MetroPCS shares, believes the carrier should remain a standalone company and hold out for a better offer.
Pending approval, the tentative plan is to move MetroPCS customers to T-Mobile’s network by 2015. The merger likely won’t propel T-Mobile into third place with regards to US wireless carriers but there’s no doubt it would give them a much-needed boost overall.
https://www.techspot.com/news/51859-department-of-justice-approves-t-mobile-metropcs-merger.html
