AT&T’s chief executive believes the proposed merger between T-Mobile and Sprint will face a different review from regulators than his company’s ill-fated pursuit of T-Mobile seven years ago.
But Randall Stephenson, who spoke Wednesday at the Code Conference in Southern California, also said the deal has a “tough hill to climb,” according to CNBC.
“It’s a classic horizontal merger where they are taking a competitor out of the marketplace,” Stephenson said at the event. “Power to them if they get it done.”
AT&T backed away from its 2011 agreement to acquire T-Mobile after it drew opposition from the Justice Department, and analysts are pessimistic that regulators will OK another deal that would reduce the number of major carriers in the U.S. from four to three.
The pending merger would also bump AT&T from the no. 2 position in the U.S. market to no. 3, but Stephenson, citing AT&T’s ongoing battle with antitrust regulators over its merger with Time Warner, declined to take a position on whether it should ultimately be approved.
“People will say, ‘Well if he comes out and says he supports it, that means it must be anti-competitive because why would he want it?'” Stephenson said, according to the network. “‘But if he comes out and says he’s against it, that must mean it’s pro-competitive, so we ought to let it go.'”
