AT&T to offer more sops to save $39 billion T-Mobile USA merger: report

In order to save it's near-dead $39 billion merger with T-Mobile USA, AT&T is considering divesting a larger portion of T-Mobile USA assets than it had initially planned, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing a person familiar with the plan.

Quoting sources, the news agency said AT&T could divest as much as 40 per cent of T-Mobile USA's assets, which could be spectrum and subscribers.

The move is aimed at addressing concerns of the Department of Justice (DOJ), which had sued AT&T on 31 August with an aim to block the merger.

This week, AT&T withdrew its application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), saying that it wants to focus on addressing the DOJ lawsuit first. (See: AT&T to take $4-bn charge as $39-bn T-Mobile merger nears collapse)

AT&T's decision of withdrawing its application with the FCC was to first address the lawsuit before the FCC had a chance to vote on whether or not to hold a hearing, which could adversely affect the lawsuit filed by the DOJ.

AT&T needs both regulators to sign off to get the merger through.

But the FCC has put a spanner on AT&T's plan by saying that it is evaluating how to handle the request of withdrawal.