let’s take a look at the $26.5 billion merger under consideration between Sprint and T-Mobile. Good background article at https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/29/606900032/t-mobile-sprint-announce-a-plan-for-merger (Links to an external site.).

This is an interesting one, as these companies are the 3rd and 4th largest carriers in the mobile market, but both trail significantly behind market leaders AT&T and Verizon. They have tried to merge before and been denied, and this merger is receiving a good amount of scrutiny. T-Mobile also previously tried to merge with AT&T, a move that was blocked in 2011.

The merger has been tentatively approved by the FCC and Department of Justice, but is held up in the courts because several states are suing to block the merger: https://www.cnet.com/news/t-mobile-sprint-deal-wins-justice-department-ok-what-you-need-to-know/ (Links to an external site.)

Please prepare a 1 to 2 page analysis of this merger based on what we have learned recently. The US mobile phone carrier market functions as an oligopoly. What sort of market impacts might concern the States or the federal government regarding this merger? How will they test the impacts of the merger? What do you think might happen if the companies are allowed to merge? Do you think this will go forward?