Political tinge to DoJ’s move to block AT&T

The Department of Justice's decision on AT&T/T-Mobile was delivered with a political tinge, with James Cole, the deputy attorney-general, saying: “We see this as a move that will help protect jobs in the economy, not a move that’s going to in any way reduce them.” He said: “The general experience with mergers is that there is what’s called efficiencies, which is redundancies when the two companies come together, which usually reduces jobs, in our experience.” Coincidentally or not, such a rationale dovetails perfectly with the agenda of the Obama administration, which is focused on how to create, and protect, jobs, at a time of persistent high unemployment. The timing took some by surprise, as did the DoJ’s decision not to proceed in concert with the Federal Communications Commission.