AT&T Inc. has about a month to decide whether it wants to proceed with a $39 billion acquisition that has faced strong government opposition.
The telecommunications firm has until Jan. 12 to file a report with a federal district court in Washington, D.C. explaining whether it still plans to buy T-Mobile, Bloomberg reported. Meantime, U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle has granted requests to stay antitrust lawsuits against the merger, including separate cases filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, Sprint Nextel Corp. and Cellular South Inc., according to the report.
Dallas-based AT&T was scheduled to battle the Justice Department in a February trial over whether the merger is anticompetitive, but the company revealed this week it and T-Mobile's parent Deutsche Telekom wanted to stay proceedings until Jan. 18, 2012 in order "to allow the two companies to evaluate all options."
AT&T's statements Monday raised the possibility that the nation's second-largest wireless provider could abandon its acquisition of T-Mobile in the face of strong government opposition from the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission.
