http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/ Engadget Comments for AT&T reportedly eyeing post-merger Verizon Wireless assets http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/Feb 4th 2009 1:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/Feb 4th 2009 1:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/
They probably want the area, land, customers.

Maybe they will wait until 4G before they switch it from CDMA to GSM.....]]>Feb 4th 2009 1:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/
The same goes any other asset.

Essentially customers will see nothing change because of this (except for Alltel customers).

This happens all the time between Comcast and Time Warner. In many markets they were 50/50 partners on the infrastructure, but divvied up the management and billing responsibilities. ]]>Feb 4th 2009 1:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/
By the way, when they talk about "assets" they are not just talking about towers and switches. The greater asstes are the lisences, which is what is really up for sale.]]>Feb 4th 2009 2:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/
So if you've called in to Verizon to complain a bunch, enjoy AT&T!]]>Feb 4th 2009 8:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/Feb 4th 2009 1:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/]]>Feb 4th 2009 1:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://news.vzw.com/news/2009/01/pr2009-01-09.html]]>Feb 4th 2009 2:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/Feb 4th 2009 1:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/Feb 4th 2009 2:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/
Well, they are an M&A (merger and acquisition) entity. Just like Berkshire Hathaway, Bain Capital, Cerebus Group.

They just own other companies they like and let them run and make money for them.
]]>Feb 4th 2009 2:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/Douche chills I tell ya, douche chills ;^/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlyle_Group]]>Feb 4th 2009 2:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/
You mean FROM them.

The Carlyle group is a private equity firm. That basically means that they're kind of like a bank for the mega rich. People with a first name of 'Sheikh' give them billions of dollars with which they buy things - companies, stocks, property, whatever. The money they make on those assets are paid back to the investors as interest (similar to how a bank invests with your money and gives you a cut of the profit).

In this case, they could buy some of the cell network infrastructure and lease it to AT&T and whoever else will pay. The idea is that they make it a profit on it, they're not going to start their own network or anything like that (they could, but there's much more risk tied with that).]]>Feb 4th 2009 2:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/Feb 4th 2009 2:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/
It's like if they made Google sell stuff & Microsoft bought it.]]>Feb 4th 2009 2:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/Feb 4th 2009 2:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/
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Even if the FCC said that either company could snatch up Sprint and not face antitrust scrutiny, Sprint's financials are so bad, I don't think either company would want to touch them. While Big Blue and Big Red add around 2 million customers a quarter and have increasing profits, Sprint loses about 750,000 a quarter and has falling profit margins and increasing churn.

In a failing economy, AT&T and Verizon are two of the safest companies.]]>Feb 4th 2009 7:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/Feb 4th 2009 3:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/Feb 4th 2009 3:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/
I see no reason why the DOJ would reject this. In most of the markets AT&T would be getting, they have local service in the popluation centers or rely on Alltel's GSM network for roaming. This would be bringing in another competitor, which gets the FCC and DOJ wet.]]>Feb 4th 2009 7:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/Feb 4th 2009 10:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/atandt-reportedly-eyeing-post-merger-verizon-wireless-assets/
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Just curious but does anyone know if Vodafone could buy the assets from Verizon and then have Vodafone as an MVNO under Verizon Wireless or would that be a conflict of interest since they both own stock in the others company.]]>Feb 5th 2009 11:40AM