If the U.S. wireless market were a John Hughes ’80s movie, Verizon would be Jake from Sixteen Candles — rich, expensive car, gets what he wants; AT&T would be Andrew from The Breakfast Club — dumb but popular, brutish, secretly just wanting to be loved; T-Mobile would be Duckie from Pretty In Pink — pugnacious, a flashy dresser, occasionally adorably profane; while Sprint would be Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — always seemingly on the verge of failure, barely tolerated, has parents with a lot of money. And now those rich parents think that teaming up their awkward son with plucky T-Mobile will help them both take on the bigger, more handsome competitors. [More]
consolidation nation
Verizon Reportedly Interested In Buying Comcast Or Other Big Cable Company
By 1.17.17
AT&T has been on a buying spree in the last two years, first snatching up DirecTV and its more than 20 million customers, and now trying to acquire the massive Time Warner media empire. The company’s nemeses at Verizon apparently have acquisition envy, and are mulling over a purchase of a cable biggie like Comcast or Charter. [More]
Could AB InBev Try To Buy Coca-Cola To Create Beer & Soda Voltron?
By 9.12.16
After you’ve spent more than $100 billion to acquire your biggest competitor, what’s left? Sure, you can buy up that smaller business here and sell off this subsidiary there, but how does a company regain the adrenaline rush of pulling off a transaction so big people need to stop and count the zeros? [More]
T-Mobile CEO Sees Cable/Wireless Mergers As Inevitable
By 4.29.15
As we sip the last drops of champagne over the failure of the merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, an even bigger acquisition appears to be passing through the regulatory process with relative ease — that of AT&T and DirecTV. And with Comcast, TWC, Charter, and other cable operators all now looking for potential corporate spouses, their eyes may also be turning toward the wireless market. [More]
GrubHub And Seamless To Form Food Delivery Supercompany
By 5.20.13
GrubHub and Seamless Web are two of the biggest players in the growing online food-ordering industry, catering to those of us who would rather not deal with looking up menus then going through the ritual of reciting our orders over the phone. Today, the two companies announced their intent to merge and save people the hassle of having to toggle between the two sites when they can’t decide what to order. [More]
DOJ Gives Thumbs Up To Southwest's Purchase Of AirTran
By 4.27.11
Seems like it was just seven months ago that we first wrote about the proposed sale of AirTran to Southwest Airlines for $1.4 billion. Now that deal is all but done after it passed the Justice Department’s antitrust review yesterday. [More]
Sale Of AirTran To Southwest One Step Closer To Being A Done Deal
By 3.25.11
Overshadowed by last year’s relatively rapid merger of United and Continental was the sale of AirTran to Southwest. That sale is now one big step away from completion after AirTran shareholders approved the deal earlier this week. [More]
