But many industries with three strong players — especially an industry that requires significant capital costs — turn out more competitive. There is another that could be just as daunting: the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Because T-Mobile is controlled by its German parent, Deutsche Telekom, and Sprint is controlled by Japan’s SoftBank, it is possible that the committee could claim that a merger poses a threat to national security. Lawmakers have raised security questions about the merger, citing connections between SoftBank and the Chinese device maker Huawei, which has been called a national security threat. But perhaps the most important voice we’ve heard from so far has come from the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Makan Delrahim.

Source: New York Times July 31, 2018 00:11 UTC