DealZone

AT&T’s surprise $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom will create a new leader in the U.S. mobile sector and likely draw scrutiny. The regulatory challenge will be predicting what the dominant form of communication will be 3 to 5 years from now, analyst Evan Stewart said. The deal will take a year to close, in which time customers are expected to see improved network quality, according to AT&T.

Sprint Nextel risks being further eclipsed by Verizon and the new AT&T, which together would boast 230.3 million customers in the U.S., compared to Sprint’s less than 50 million, writes Michael J. de la Merced and Jenna Wortham of The New York Times.

Citigroup plans to slash the number of common shares outstanding and reintroduce a dividend after suspending payouts two years ago, taking another step in its long recovery from the brink of failure during the financial crisis.

Warren Buffett said he believes Japan’s devastating earthquake is the kind of extraordinary event that creates a buying opportunity for shares in Japanese companies and that his Berkshire Hathway is looking for more large-scale acquisitions anywhere in the world. “The United States is most likely where we will do something,” he added.

Facebook agreed to buy Snaptu, an application developer for mobile devices that are less sophisticated than smartphones, as the world’s largest Internet social network focuses on expanding its mobile services.

China’s Sichuan Tengzhon Heavy Industrial Machinery Co became the surprise buyer for General Motor’s Hummer brand while insurer AIG — another U.S. giant in trouble — cut the asking price for its Taiwan insurance unit. For the day’s top headlines, click here.

And here is what we found of interest in the newspapers.

Global miner Rio Tinto may cut the size of its planned $7.2 billion issue of convertible bonds to China’s Chinalco and raise more equity via a rights issue, the Australian Financial Review reported.

Banks in Qatar, the world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas, will get cash and bonds in exchange for selling their real estate investments to the government under a $4 billion programme unveiled last week, the daily Gulf Times cited sources as saying.