Baer, Wheeler Slam Any Sprint/T-Mobile, Which T-Mobile CFO Says Could Cut Costs; McSweeny Concerned

Former FCC and Justice Department antitrust heads rejected a possible Sprint/T-Mobile, as a T-Mobile executive talked up potential synergies. Such a deal would hurt competition and raise prices for consumers, ex-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and former DOJ Antitrust Division Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer wrote in a Friday commentary for CNBC. After the FCC and DOJ said no to AT&T's buying T-Mobile in 2011, T-Mobile revamped its pricing and products, spurring rivals to match them to consumers' benefit, the former officials said. Later, Baer and Wheeler told Sprint owner SoftBank that they wouldn’t support an acquisition of T-Mobile. SoftBank may believe it will find “more sympathetic ears in the new administration,” Baer and Wheeler said. “But the merger made no sense before, and it makes no sense today.” Free Press also opposed the possible wireless deal (see 1705120050). Democratic FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny tweeted that the remarks had "excellent points re value of competition to consumers in the wireless market." Monday at a J.P. Morgan investor conference, T-Mobile Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said possible $30 billion synergy estimates for a Sprint/T-Mobile may be conservative, said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche in a research note. “These synergies would include traditional hard cost synergies from combining networks, with the ability for capex avoidance down the road as they leverage their combined spectrum,” the analyst wrote. Carter said integration costs could be at least $10 billion, Fritzsche said. A recording of Carter’s remarks wasn’t available.