Merger Litigation Highlight: T-Mobile/Sprint Podcast Series

December 8, 2020

Cleary Gottlieb’s antitrust practice is renowned for its work on the world’s most significant competition matters, and its leading merger clearance and litigation capabilities help protect transactions when they are challenged.

Cleary’s merger clearance team successfully litigated one of the most significant merger cases in recent history, defeating a challenge by multiple state attorneys general and private plaintiffs to the T-Mobile/Sprint deal, carefully structuring a remedy that preserved the value and benefits of the transaction. Learn more about this landmark matter in a three-part podcast series presented by The Deal:

Podcast 1: Crafting a Strategy for Regulatory Approvals

Cleary partner Mark Nelson and T-Mobile executive vice president, general counsel, and secretary Dave Miller discuss the legal team’s strategy to overcome regulatory challenges in light of unsuccessful combination attempts prior to the companies’ 2018 merger announcement.

LISTEN HERE | VIEW REPORT

Podcast 2: Implications of the Court’s Decision

Cleary partners George Cary and Daniel Culley and T-Mobile senior vice president of litigation and IP Laura Buckland discuss the successful federal court trial won against a group of state attorneys general, implications of U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero’s decision to approve the merger, and the biggest takeaways from the opinion: vindication of the modern, nuanced approach to merger analysis and a courtroom strategy that embraces more than market definition.

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Podcast 3: Impact on Future Deals

Cleary partner Dave Gelfand and T-Mobile vice president of antitrust and IP Melissa Scanlan explore the implications of the court’s decision for regulatory approval in future deals. They also explore the potential impact on future litigants and attempts by state enforcers to diverge from federal enforcers, and strategies that might be used to navigate deals through government review processes in the future.

LISTEN HERE | VIEW REPORT 

 

Cleary’s Merger Litigation Experience

  • T-Mobile US and Deutsche Telekom in T-Mobile US’s merger with Sprint Corporation for a total combined enterprise value of $146 billion, including in defending litigation brought by a coalition of state attorneys general challenging the merger.
  • PeopleSoft as an interested party in the DOJ’s suit challenging its $10 billion acquisition by Oracle Corporation, and in defending litigation brought by Oracle and some PeopleSoft shareholders opposing the merger.
  • Equitable Resources in winning dismissal of antitrust claims brought by the FTC relating to Equitable’s proposed acquisition of The People’s Natural Gas Company.
  • AspenTech in the FTC’s challenge to its acquisition of Hyprotech in the industrial process software market; Cleary was asked to take over AspenTech’s defense when the FTC filed suit. The case was resolved with AspenTech being allowed to keep the assets acquired.
  • 10X Genomics as plaintiff in an ongoing challenge of the 2017 merger of Bio-Rad and RainDance, former competitors in the biotech sector.