Judge Rebuffs Interveners In Review of Mega Mergers

JUDGE REBUFFS INTERVENERS IN REVIEW OF MEGA MERGERS
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 7/25, AUTHOR: Sarah Lai Stirland]
Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan of the District of Columbia temporarily rebuffed several parties that sought to derail the Bush administration's antitrust settlement with two sets of local telecommunications companies in their mergers with long-distance providers. The American Antitrust Institute, the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, the New Jersey Division of Rate Council, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Sprint Nextel all had sought to intervene in the judicial review of the mergers. The Justice Department settled the antitrust complaint it had filed against AT&T and MCI in their mergers with SBC Communications and Verizon Communications, respectively. The groups had offered input from expert witnesses after the judge in a July 12 hearing asked where the public-interest groups were and why he had not been offered any independent experts to confirm Justice's findings in the settlement. The groups oppose the settlement in its current form, which requires the new AT&T and Verizon to provide competitive access to certain buildings in several markets and to divest of certain assets. Judge Sullivan asked the utilities' group, Spitzer and Sprint Nextel to file friend-of-the-court briefs. He said he would take the rest of the requests "under advisement" and would "disfavor" any additional requests because of time constraints.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-AWJF1153939195365.html