AT&T, T-Mobile deal: Judge to delay California probe indefinitely

Citing uncertainty about the fate of AT&T's $39-billion deal to take over T-Mobile, a California administrative law judge has indefinitely postponed proceedings in a 6-month-old state investigation of the deal.

A California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge, Jessica Hecht, said she was eliminating an upcoming deadline in the case "in recognition of recent developments related to the underlying merger proposal." "I will continue to monitor developments related to the proposed merger," she wrote, and "will issue a new schedule for these comments or other activities in the future, if appropriate." The delay came after the CPUC received requests earlier this week from AT&T and T-Mobile to put a hold on the proceedings, she wrote.