Welcome to Axis ProRata, a podcast that takes just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech business and politics.

I'm Dan Pramak. On today's show, what Morgan Stanley just taught us about tech startups and Amazon hears the HQ2 heat in New York.

But first, a mega merger gets political. So last April, Sprint and T-Mobile U.S. agreed to merge in a $26 billion deal that would reduce

the number of major national wireless carriers from four to three.

Now, at the time, leaders of both companies expressed extreme confidence that their transaction

would receive regulatory approval.

And yeah, CEOs always

express that sort of confidence when announcing a big merger, even for ones that ultimately get

blocked. But I've got to say, I was on the call and it really didn't sound forced. One reason is

probably because Sprint and T-Mobile aren't just the third and fourth players behind AT&T and

Verizon, but they're the third and fourth players way behind AT&T and Verizon, but they're the third and fourth players way behind

AT&T and Verizon. Even combined, they don't get to number two, so they probably weren't as

concerned about the anti-competitive threat. Also, neither one of them has a big media component,

or really anything related to China, which have been the two big exceptions to the Trump administration's business-friendly stance on mergers.

And plus, there is this idea that by combining T-Mobile and Sprint, you'd improve the rollout of so-called 5G networking in the U.S., which, again, is a Trump administration priority.

But the thing is, April 2018, when they announced that deal, it's a long time ago.

And it has run into significant opposition from rural carriers and other rivals like Dish,

plus the sorts of progressive political groups that are ascendant in February 2019,

Washington, D.C. In fact, this week, the CEOs of both companies are going to testify before Congress

where they should expect a much less friendly audience than they received on their announcement

call for bank analysts. Now, Congress doesn't actually get the final call here, but it can put

a lot of pressure on the FCC and Department of Justice, and the final resolution could shape

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