Investment bankers win big in AT&T-T-Mobile deal
Jeremy Hobson: Well the $39 billion T-Mobile takeover plan announced yesterday by AT&T was hailed as good news on Wall Street. And that’s not just because it’s the latest sign of an improving economy. This is the sort of payday that big banks have been waiting for ever since the economy tanked three years ago.
Our senior business correspondent Bob Moon explains.
Bob Moon: A penny for your thoughts? How about $145 million? That’s what AT&T and T-Mobile’s parent Deutsche Telekom reportedly could be paying, just for advice from a half-dozen investment firms. They don’t simply sign off on a deal.
Hiter Harris: It seems like a very quick culmination, but oftentimes this is a process that has been going on for a very long time.
Hiter Harris is a corporate matchmaker at Harris Williams. He says firms like his can play a key role in arranging financing and deciding if firms are a good fit. In this case, JPMorgan Chase apparently thinks so. It’s not just advising AT&T, it’s chipping in the biggest loan it’s ever made — $20 billion. Vipal Monga writes for The Deal, and thinks this could bode well for the whole economy.
Vipal Monga: JPMorgan was one of the first banks to start pulling out of the large leveraged buyouts that sort of initiated the credit crunch. So for JPMorgan to be stepping in, and Jamie Dimon in particular — known as one of the more conservative leaders of any bank out there — suggests that there’s a lot of comfort.
Not to mention a lot of money to be made on pent-up merger demand.
I’m Bob Moon for Marketplace.
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