Justice Department to allow T-Mobile's $4.4 billion acquisition of UScellular
The U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division said it was closing its investigation without seeking to block the deal announced in May 2024 for T-Mobile to take over UScellular's wireless operations including customers, stores and 30% of its spectrum assets.
The announcement came a day after T-Mobile US said it was ending its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, under pressure from the Trump administration as it sought regulatory clearance for this deal and Federal Communications Commission approval to establish a joint venture with (KKR.N), opens new tab to acquire internet service provider Metronet.
In trading after the market close, T-Mobile shares edged higher and US Cellular traded up 2%.
Gail Slater, head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, said in a statement that customers would be better off with T-Mobile.
"UScellular simply could not keep up with the escalating cost of capital investments in technology required to compete vigorously in the relevant market. This would, in turn, lead to the slow degradation of its network quality," she said.
The Justice Department's investigation did not show evidence of harms to competition that would warrant suing to block the deal, Slater said.
But she added the transaction and two others tied to it would "consolidate yet more spectrum in the Big 3's oligopoly, which controls more than 80 percent of the mobile wireless spectrum in the country," referring to Verizon (VZ.N), opens new tab, AT&T (T.N), opens new tab, and T-Mobile.
"The risks to future competition due to further spectrum aggregation by the Big 3 are acute," she said.
Spokespeople for T-Mobile and UScellular did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Under President Donald Trump's administration, antitrust enforcers have cleared the way for several multibillion-dollar deals, replacing his predecessor Joe Biden's tough stance on corporate consolidation with a willingness to settle with companies and truncate waiting periods.
The Justice Department and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission cleared three deals that were together worth $63 billion in June, illustrating how Slater and Andrew Ferguson, her Federal Trade Commission counterpart, are taking a different tack from their predecessors.
Among those deals was a settlement allowing Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE.N), opens new tab $14 billion deal to acquire networking gear maker Juniper Networks, which the Justice Department had sued to block shortly after Trump took office.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise started negotiating its settlement with the Justice Department on March 25, around two weeks after Slater was sworn in, according to court papers.
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