COMPTEL Files Supplementary Motion for AT&T Merger Cases, Claims Inconsistent DOJ Action

By Mae Kowalke

TMCnet Associate Editor

 

COMPTEL Thursday filed a supplementary motion in U.S. District Court for District of Columbia relating to two cases: “U.S. vs. SBC, Inc. and AT&T (News - Alert) Corp.” and “U.S. vs. Verizon (News - Alert) Communications, Inc. and AT&T Corp.”

 

The motion is an addendum to COMPTEL’S original objection to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) proposed amended final judgments (PAFJs) in the cases.

 

COMPTEL claims that the PAFJs in the cases are inconsistent with the DOJ’s own merger review guidelines, a COMPTEL spokesperson told TMCnet Friday.

 

To illustrate this, COMPTEL referenced another case—involving the $1.075 billion acquisition of Midwest Holdings LLC by ALLTEL Corporation--which was settled Sept. 7. COMPTEL feels that the ALLTEL case was handled correctly, the spokesperson said, and as such it serves as useful evidence for the judge considering the AT&T cases.

 

“The ALLTEL/Midwest Wireless merger was handled in a completely different manner than the SBC/AT&T merger and the Verizon/MCI merger,” COMPTEL said in its Thursday motion.