Lawmakers Ask for Delay of AT&T's Purchase of BellSouth

LAWMAKERS ASK FOR DELAY OF AT&T'S PURCHASE OF BELLSOUTH
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
Reps. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI) and John Conyers Jr. (D-MI), the chairman and the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, have asked the Justice Department to delay approval of AT&T Inc.'s $67-billion purchase of BellSouth. In a letter to Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales on Wednesday, they asked for the delay until a federal judge decides whether SBC's purchase of AT&T, as well as Verizon's acquisition of MCI, were in the public interest. On Thursday, the chairman of the Senate subcommittee that deals with antitrust matters, Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH), added his voice to the cautionary chorus. He and the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, asked the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission to consider imposing conditions on the acquisition "if they are necessary to help ensure that the telecommunications market remains open to new sources of competition." Among their concerns: the amount of wireless spectrum that the combined companies would control. A day earlier, Kohl and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the senior Judiciary Committee Democrat, wrote a similar letter questioning whether the Justice Department had been approving buyouts too hastily, counter to the intent of federal law.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-att29sep29,1,439518.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business
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* News Release: http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/telecomrelATTAG92806.pdf

* See the letter: http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/telecomltrAG92806.pdf