The Federal Communications Commission paused its informal 180-day clock for reviewing T-Mobile US. Inc.’s takeover of Sprint Corp., saying it needs more time to consider information the wireless carriers have provided.
The agency, which started its formal review about 60 days ago, said it is taking more time to review a “significantly larger and more complex” engineering model that the companies had recently submitted and a business model that executives had referenced in a recent meeting with commission staff, according to a letter issued Tuesday by the FCC.
FCC officials sometimes stretch their self-imposed timeline to review particularly complex or high-profile transactions. T-Mobile’s TMUS, +0.53% plan to buy Sprint S, +0.50% is both, featuring large foreign-ownership stakes, planned investments in new 5G network technology and a new definition of competition that executives have used to argue there are more than four competitors in the national wireless market.
The delay is hardly a major setback for the more than $26 billion merger effort. Company executives have said privately and publicly that the deal review would most likely drag into 2019.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com
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