AT&T pushes back date for possible T-Mobile Acquisition

It’s been a bit since we’ve mentioned anything about the merger that nobody on the planet besides AT&T wants to see go through. In fact, we didn’t mention it throughout the whole month of October, and that’s because bigger and better fish came along for us to fry. The Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich completely stole the spotlight from nearly anything else you could possibly read about in the smartphone industry. Now that we’ve had a couple of weeks to savor Google’s latest treat, the reality sets back in for everyone that yes, Android 4.0 and the G-Nex are definitely awesome, but they are unfortunately not as important as this dreaded merger that threatens to potentially change the face of Android as we know it. Okay, that may be a bit exaggerated, but this is an extremely important issue, especially for me as a T-Mobile customer.

We already know there’s a hearing set to begin on February 13th, and that U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle set aside 6 weeks for the non-jury trial. Today we’ve come across information that AT&T has pushed back their target date for its bid to acquire T-Mobile USA. AT&T disclosed in its quarterly regulatory filing that it now expects the deal to close in the first half of 2012, rather than its initial target of the first quarter.

Lately, AT&T has been under the Justice Department’s thumb to show to the world why the merger would be beneficial to customers. AT&T was sued by the USJD in an attempt to block the deal from going down. Now, there aren’t many times when I’ll publicly throw my two cents in on governmental issues, but this is one time I’ll say that I am glad to see the Man is stepping in. This acquisition is a consumer’s nightmare. If it goes through, get ready for a new era of dictatorship, headed up by Randall L. Stephenson and ‘Ma Bell‘.

Be sure to drop us a line in the comment thread and rage on about how you don’t want this deal to go down. Who knows? It may catch the attention of someone important and make a difference.

Source: CNET