Why Did AT&T Announce Plans to Acquire Leap on a Friday Afternoon?

[Commentary] I’m always suspicious of announcements that come out late on a Friday afternoon – and in the case of AT&T’s announcement Friday that it would purchase Leap Wireless, it wasn’t difficult to find a reason why the potential merger partners might want to minimize the attention paid to the announcement.

Not surprisingly for anyone who has been following the 700 MHz A-block debacle, AT&T aims to sell off the Leap Wireless A-block spectrum in the Chicago market as part of its plans to acquire that carrier. AT&T seems to have deliberately avoided acquiring any A-block spectrum even though that block is adjacent to AT&T’s spectrum holdings in the B-block and lower C-block and, theoretically, should be attractive to the carrier. AT&T has a long-standing dislike for the A-block, claiming that devices capable of operating in the A-block are subject to interference from Channel 51 TV broadcasters. Channel 51 is operational in about 30 of the nation’s 200+ TV markets, including Chicago.