Dish Network courts T-Mobile as AT&T deal wobbles

Dec 12, 2011, 23:06 GMT

San Francisco - Satellite television giant Dish Network will seek to partner with T-Mobile if AT&T's bid to buy the smaller mobile-phone competitor falls through due to regulatory hurdles, Dish Network chief executive Joseph Clayton said Monday.

Clayton's comments to Bloomberg News came amid signs that AT&T's 39-billion-dollar takeover of T-Mobile is all but dead, following a decision by District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle to grant a stay in the deal's anti-trust trial.

The stay had been jointly requested by the Justice Department and AT&T to allow the company more time to appease regulators, who feared that the combined firm would create an anti-competitive situation in the highly consolidated US mobile market. The move followed a decision last month by the Federal Communications Commission that it would block the deal.

'AT&T and Deutsche Telekom advised Judge Huvelle this morning that they wish to stay any further court proceedings until January 18, 2012, to allow the two companies time to evaluate all options,' AT&T said in a statement.

'AT&T is committed to working with Deutsche Telekom to find a solution that is in the best interests of our respective customers, shareholders and employees. We are actively considering whether and how to revise our current transaction to achieve the necessary regulatory approvals.'

If the proposed deal is withdrawn, it would leave T-Mobile's parent company, Deutsche Telekom, searching for a new partner for a carrier that is a distant fourth in the US market.

In his interview with Bloomberg, Dish Network's Clayton said his company, which bought a large chunk of wireless spectrum earlier this year, would be a natural fit with T-Mobile.

'We're not interested in making money on selling our spectrum,' said Clayton in the interview. 'We want to use it to create a national wireless network - video, voice and data. We've got expertise in satellite TV, and we will in satellite broadband. The voice part, we'll need some help with.'

AT&T statement: http://bit.ly/tFpn7d

Bloomberg interview: http://bloom.bg/vmBjCJ