UPDATE: DOJ Asks AT&T Shed Assets In Centennial Comm Deal OK
October 13 2009 - 5:29PM
Dow Jones News
The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday cleared AT&T
Inc.'s (T) $944 million acquisition of Centennial Communications
Corp. (CYCL), but required AT&T to divest assets in Louisiana
and Mississippi as a condition of government approval.
The department's antitrust regulators said the divestitures were
needed to protect competition for mobile wireless
telecommunications services in those areas.
The divestitures cover eight areas in the two states. AT&T
had agreed in May to sell Centennial's assets in five of those
areas to Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ).
The AT&T-Centennial deal still needs the approval of the
Federal Communications Commission.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has declined to offer a solid
time frame for the commission's approval, but staffers examining
the merger say they want to finish their recommendations
quickly.
The companies reached the all-cash deal last November and had
hoped to complete the sale by midyear.
AT&T has said the acquisition would enhance its wireless
coverage for customers in largely rural areas of the Midwest and
Southeast United States and in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin
Islands. Executives at both companies said in a joint statement
that they were pleased with the Justice Department's clearance of
the deal.
"The combination of AT&T and Centennial will bring together
two complementary wireless businesses and will produce meaningful
benefits for customers of both companies," said Wayne Watts, senior
executive vice president and general counsel at AT&T.
-By Brent Kendall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9222;
brent.kendall@dowjones.com