PARIS (Standard&Poor's) Sept. 1, 2011--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings on German telecom operator Deutsche Telekom AG (DT; BBB+/Positive/A-2) are unchanged after the U.S. Department of Justice announced an antitrust lawsuit against the acquisition of DT's U.S. subsidiary T-Mobile USA by U.S.-based AT&T Inc. (A-/Stable/A-2). We believe that the transaction could still go through and that any remedies to facilitate an approval are likely to be provided by AT&T, rather than DT. We would likely reconsider our positive outlook on DT's rating if the transaction appeared less likely to occur, in our opinion, or to proceed on different terms for DT. This is because we anticipate leverage reduction and more predictable capital requirements for
