Deutsche Telekom Losing $12 Billion Even With New Bid: Real M&A

Deutsche Telekom AG may never get as good a deal for T-Mobile USA as it did with AT&T Inc.

AT&T agreed in March to pay $39 billion for Deutsche Telekom’s U.S. mobile-phone unit, a takeover that the Justice Department yesterday sued to block. The deal, struck at 28.8 times profit, gave T-Mobile USA the highest valuation of any wireless carrier outside China. With T-Mobile USA now mired in its biggest profit slump in almost a decade, a sale at the same multiple AT&T was willing to pay would generate $12 billion less for Deutsche Telekom, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.