T-Mobile USA/Metro PCS Merger

On March 20, 2013, both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) granted full approval – with no conditions – to the merger between T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS, with the FCC indicating that the merger would strengthen competition in the U.S. wireless market by “moving toward robust competition and revitalized competitors,” and the DOJ indicating that the merger was “unlikely to harm consumers or substantially lessen competition.” The companies completed their merger in May of 2013. This successful outcome was the culmination of more than six months of work by a Compass Lexecon team, with Mark Israel as expert, supported by Paolo Ramezzana, David Fenichel, Ben Wagner, Joel Papke, John Hore, and others. The Compass Lexecon team presented econometric results to both the DOJ and FCC demonstrating the merger’s pro-competitive effects, including innovative work to translate the effects of network quality on customer churn into a measure of the monetary value of the transaction to consumers and to measure the marginal cost savings from the transaction. Compass Lexecon worked closely with Mark Nelson, George Cary, and Patrick Bock of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in conducting the antitrust analysis of the transaction.