AT&T's lobbying turned back in T-Mobile bid

AT&T's aborted T-Mobile bid proved that a company can be too big and lobby too much to succeed in Washington.

Not even a nearly $16 million lobbying tab and almost $2 million in campaign contributions helped the wireless giant sell its proposed $39 billion mega-deal to federal regulators. In the end, the company’s well-oiled political machine sputtered, leaving AT&T no choice but to bail — costing the company a nearly $4 billion breakup fee in cash and spectrum. The end of the deal marks a serious defeat for AT&T’s Washington lobbying shop, which is one of the largest corporate lobbying offices in the capital. After announcing the deal in March, AT&T bulked up its presence in DC, leveraged its relationships with statehouses around the country and took its case to interest groups representing everything from milk producers to diverse communities. “Lobbying generally rolls off the back of the antitrust enforcement authorities,” said Harry First, director of the Competition, Innovation, and Information Law Program at New York University. First said the regulatory review itself seemed to be a “fairly apolitical” process, as it was the merits of the deal — and not the effectiveness of AT&T’s work stumping for it — that ultimately sunk its prospects.