T-Mobile and Sprint Question States’ Credibility in Merger Suit
(Bloomberg) -- T-Mobile USA Inc. and Sprint Corp. asked a judge to force more than a dozen states that sued to block their merger to hand over communications about the case and reveal who's financing the litigation.
T-Mobile wants access to messages between the state attorneys general about how they'd pay for the litigation, suggesting the companies may argue the case is tainted by cost-sharing deals.
“Such arrangements may, for example, be relevant to credibility” the companies' lawyers said in a letter this week to U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger in Manhattan. The deals could support “an inference that a party has been induced to support a particular position,” they said.
The states on Tuesday responded with a letter to the judge arguing their messages about how they allocate resources in a lawsuit against “deep-pocketed adversaries” are confidential and irrelevant to any defense.
The companies “are not entitled to discovery of the financial arrangements of public law enforcement agencies,” lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James and her California counterpart, Xavier Becerra, said in the letter.
Read More: T-Mobile Wins Sprint Deal Approval With Plan to Create Rival
The states said they tried to resolve the issue over access to their communications by assuring T-Mobile and Sprint that the financing for the case didn't involve any private funds, and that state budgets are a matter of public record.
“This should have resolved the issue, but defendants nevertheless persist with this baseless motion,“ the states said.
The states last week vowed to continue their lawsuit to block the tie-up after the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division reached a settlement with the companies to clear the deal. The suit, filed in June, claims the merger will hurt wireless consumers by stunting competition.
On Wednesday, the states filed another letter asking to have the start date for the merger trial moved from Oct. 7 to Dec. 9. They say they need more time because the companies failed to hand over all the details of their settlement with the Justice Department by an agreed deadline of June 28.
To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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