From the minute it was announced in March 2011, AT&T Inc.’s $39 billion bid for T-Mobile USA Inc. was the biggest M&A deal of the year. It hung on to that status until the day in December when it fell apart amid opposition from antitrust regulators, leaving AT&T on the hook for a $4 billion breakup fee.
During its nine-month life, the proposed merger of the nation’s number two and number four cellular telephone carriers generated plenty of work. Sullivan & Cromwell’s Joseph Frumkin and Eric Krautheimer were lead deal lawyers for AT&T. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz’s Adam Emmerich and Steven Cohen advised Deutsche Telekom AG, T-Mobile’s parent. Arnold & Porter and Crowell & Moring provided regulatory advice to AT&T, while Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Wiley Rein did the same for Deutsche Telekom.
