All about the Benjamins

In the wake of huge-money dealing comes the inevitable backpedaling by those whose iron-clad predictions were refuted, talk of buyers overpaying for overpriced assets, discussions about the complexities of such mammoth undertakings and rumors about who will make what moves next. And that’s just the Yankees--have you heard about this whole deal with Cingular Wireless buying AT&T Wireless?

Seriously, consider the parallels: Cingular’s $41 billion acquisition of AT&T Wireless has analysts who predicted Vodafone to be the winning bidder either smashing their crystal balls or crying foul over late-night, last-minute bargaining sessions. Most observers are in agreement that Cingular paid too much for its one-time rival. The intricacies of merging the billing, operations and customer support systems alone of networks operated by two major carriers are enough to give the most skilled back-office technician a hefty migraine. And from the major media outlets, the new-new news is that the spurned Vodafone is seeking another U.S. mobile mate--possibly Sprint’s wireless outfit.

Those are all legitimate issues and the stuff of much ongoing analysis, to be sure. But one aspect in particular makes me pause: This isn’t about strategy or service or synergy. It’s about cold hard cash.

For a long time now the industry has been debating the pros and cons of mobile megamergers--whether they would be good or bad for wireless, good or bad for consumers and pricing issues, good or bad for spawning new applications and prompting network enhancements and alleviating spectrum shortages and on and on and on. Everyone has been rightly analyzing the strategic aspects of such dealings: who should merge with who, when, where and why. But if AT&T’s last-second decision to accept an offer from Cingular and snub its other suitor (whose executives, as today’s New York Times put it, “went to sleep in London after having been told that they had won the contest”) demonstrates anything, in my mind it is that these mergers are about nothing but the money. If you or I or George Steinbrenner had called John Zeglis at 2 a.m. Monday--shortly before Zeglis sealed the deal with Cingular--and offered $50 billion for AT&T Wireless, any one of us could be running a wireless network by now.

And how, exactly, is that good for baseball… er, wireless?

E-mail me at jmeyers@primediabusiness.com