As the CEO of SoftBank is hopeful of acquiring T-Mobile, the CEO of AT&T believes that it is impossible for the acquisition to be approved.
SoftBank, which aims to become the largest Internet company worldwide, acquired the No. 3 U.S. mobile provider Sprint last year. It is now looking to additionally acquire No. 4 mobile provider T-Mobile, which the SoftBank believes will allow the merged companies to compete better with the top 2 U.S. mobile providers AT&T and Verizon.
"We can make it more effective by getting bigger scale," SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said at an interview.
"Us becoming a more credible competitor in scale is something good for American consumers and citizens."
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, however, believes that regulators will not approve the rumored acquisition.
"The problem as I see it is the way the government shut our deal down. They wrote a complaint and a very specific complaint. You're consolidating the industry from four to three national competitors," Stephenson said.
The deal that Stephenson is referring to is AT&T's rejected $39 billion proposal to acquire T-Mobile three years ago, which regulators disapproved because U.S. authorities are reluctant to bring down the four major mobile providers to three. As a result of the rejection, AT&T had to pay a termination fee amounting to $4 billion.
"If you think of Sprint and T-Mobile combining, I struggle to understand how that's not four going to three," Stephenson said.
Son responded to the concerns of trimming the number of providers to three by arguing that three large companies will be offering better service and lower costs through equal competition than having two dominant companies and two minor companies in the industry.
Son is beginning to receive some support in his planned acquisition of T-Mobile though, compared to earlier in the year.
"I'm not in the position to make the comment on the other end, but, you know, the last few months, there's new movement," Son said.
"I hope that the people will have more discussions on many different angles."
Son is currently preparing a proposal, which could be released by this summer. Sprint is offering to purchase T-Mobile at $40 per share, which would value the company at more than $32 billion. The final financial details of the offer, however, is still under negotiation.
AT&T, on the other hand, is still trying to gain approval from regulators on its proposed $67 billion purchase of satellite company DirecTV.
