AT&T To Buy T-Mobile

AT&T is buying the U.S. division of T-Mobile in a $39B deal that will create the nation's largest cell phone company.

If completed, the deal would allow AT&T, now the second- largest U.S. wireless operator, to add 34 million customers and surpass Verizon Wireless as the largest in the country. The acquisition, the largest in the wireless industry since 2004, may face regulatory scrutiny because it combines the second- and fourth-largest wireless providers. “This is a very surprising deal,” Jonathan Atkin, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in an interview. “AT&T is certainly buying scale. AT&T can integrate T-Mobile from an operations standpoint fairly easily because they use the same technology.”

The deal is expected to finalize within a year.