Other Telecom M&A To Follow AT&T/T-Mobile Deal? (T, VZ, S)

In light of the news that AT&T T plans to purchase Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA DTE, investors may wonder if more telecommunications mergers and acquisitions are to follow. As Benzinga readers already know, Verizon Wireless VZ has said it does not plan to bid for Sprint Nextel S, the third largest mobile communications provider, due to anti-trust concerns. AT&T has taken a risk that anti-trust officials will not approve of the deal that would launch AT&T to the number one spot in the market, passing Verizon Wireless. However, just because Verizon dismisses the possibility of a merger/acquisition of the scale AT&T seeks to secure, this does not mean that Verizon and other companies may not seek out M&A on a smaller scale. M&As in the telecommunications industry are becoming more rampant as companies seek to simultaneously cut expenses and gain a larger market share. The cited article cites the importance of using M&As to strategically grow on a global scale in the telecom industry. One study showed that there were 222 mergers in the telecom industry in the first nine months of this fiscal year compared with 149 in the same period last year. However, the growing M&As in the telecom industry will be closely regulated to prevent monopolies from forming and causing prices to rise for consumers utilizing its services. Nonetheless, it may still provide investors with lucrative investment opportunities if they can accurately predict the future of certain companies in this industry. Easier said than done.