A deal that reduces the U.S. mobile market to three national operators from four could raise eyebrows at regulators and require the merging parties to sell spectrum, according to Verizon Communications Chief Executive Lowell McAdam. McAdam was responding on Tuesday to a question about whether such a deal could be approved at an investor conference after reports that No. 3 U.S. mobile service Sprint Corp is looking into the possibility of buying No. 4 rival T-Mobile U.S. .While the executive said he does not have any inside knowledge about U.S. regulators' thinking he said that a current escalation of mobile competition may be the result the government was looking for when it blocked No. 2 mobile operator AT&T Inc from buying T-Mobile in 2011."I think they're (regulators are) beginning to see some of the things they wanted to see from four competitors ... so I think they'll want to play out that hand," McAdam said during a webcast of an investor conference in Las Vegas.McAdam suggested regulators would only approve any Sprint/T-Mobile deal if the companies involved agreed to sell a lot of their spectrum as a condition for approval.
AT&T Inc. (AT&T) is a holding company and a provider of telecommunications services in the United States and worldwide. Shares of T traded higher by 0.09% or $0.03/share to $34.99. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $32.76 and as high as $39.00. On average, 22753900 shares of T exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 14880848.
Verizon Communications Inc. (Verizon) is a holding company. Shares of VZ traded higher by 1.12% or $0.545/share to $49.24. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $41.50 and as high as $54.31. On average, 12043800 shares of VZ exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 9891679.
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