Two Republican senators urged U.S. officials to consider the benefits of AT&T Inc's (T.N) $39 billion bid to acquire Deutsche Telekom AG's (DTEGn.DE) T-Mobile USA. Mike Lee, the top Republican on the Senate's antitrust subcommittee, and colleague John Cornyn, sent a letter to the U.S. Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission, urging them to consider all the available evidence before deciding whether the transaction should go through. The senators cited the faster fourth generation service that AT&T has said it can rollout faster to more customers if the merger is approved. The deal could also spur handset innovation and development of new applications, the senators said in the letter dated Wednesday. The antitrust panel's Democratic chairman, Senator Herb Kohl, urged authorities last month to block the deal, saying there were no effective remedies that the companies could offer to stop the merger's harm to consumers and competition.
AT&T Inc. is a holding company. The Company is a provider of telecommunications services in the United States and worldwide. Shares of T fell by 1.24% or $-0.365/share to $29.14. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $26.20 and as high as $31.94. On average, 22919100 shares of T exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 18556744.
