T-Mobile and Sprint are in talks for a possible merger. People who are familiar with this matter have confirmed that the negotiations between the two companies have advanced to the next stage. Moreover, the companies are expected to conclude the merger deal by the mid of next week.
Currently, the parent company of both these companies is considering how to best divide the voting control over the combined entity. Both companies are also finalizing the debt financing packages required to execute the merger.
SoftBank, one of the biggest tech firms in Japan, owns most of the shares in Sprint. On the other hand, German telecom giant, Deutsche Telekom own majority of the shares in T-Mobile. Sources have said that Deutsche Telekom can amalgamate the company on its books without having to own a bulk of the stake.
Sprint is the 4th biggest wireless provider in America, whereas, T-Mobile is the 3rd biggest wireless company. Both these companies have a customer base of 127 million customers. This merger will challenge AT&T which is the current 2nd biggest wireless provider in America.
AT&T has a customer base of around 144 million. Verizon is the number 1 wireless provider with more than 150 million customers.
Softbank and Telekom, the parent companies of T-Mobile and Sprint, have been in talks for a couple of months now. Softbank initially attempted to acquire T-Mobile back in 2014.
However, this deal couldn’t materialize because of regulatory issues. Last year, both companies met again and sat on the table to discuss a deal. Back then, the deal couldn’t go thru as SoftBank’s Chief Executive Officer’s son back out.
Sprint and T-Mobile acquisition can face possible barriers from the United States antitrust regulators. The U.S. justice department has previously tried to block the AT&T takeover of Time Warner.
The deal is worth $85 billion and is also one of the biggest for AT&T. Last week some rumors also circulated that Verizon could possibly buy a major stake in 21st Century Fox.
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