According to sources close to the matter, who spoke to CNBC, T-Mobile and Sprint are in active talks regarding a stock-for-stock merger. If you feel like you’re having déjà vu, don’t worry, you’re not. Reports such as this have seen light before, but the reported deal fell through in mid-2014.
This time around, things seem serious again, but we could still be weeks away from any deal being struck. As reported, T-Mobile has yet to complete any due diligence on Sprint, and to further complicate the situation, heavy thought must be put into whether antitrust regulators would allow for the #3 and #4 ranked US carriers to merge.
Detailed inside of the report, given the all-stock nature of the deal, “Softbank would emerge as a large minority holder in any combination. While T-Mobile CEO John Legere is expected to lead any combination that results from a merger, [Softbank’s Masayoshi] Son has made it clear he wants a say in how the company is run.”
So, yeah, the main takeaway is that talks of a merger are happening, but it’s still possible that nothing happens. We’ll keep you posted as the story develops.
// CNBC
I can’t imagine the cultures mixing at all. Sprint is so anti-consumer and the employee attitudes so rotten, that trying to bring the two together can only ruin the progress TMO has made over the years.
Sprint. Sucks.
HELL NO!
Sprint is a cancer that need to me eradicated from existence. Tmobile should do the world a favor and buy them just to shut them down forever. What a horrible nightmare.
Please, no. T-Mobile has been gradually getting better and better. The last thing they need is something like this that could potentially make things worse.
Plus, more competition is always a GOOD thing for the customer: it forces companies to compete with each other to make better products/services.
Will Sprint be able to keep their quality sound of talking through a string between tin cans awesomeness? You’d hate to not know immediately when someone on the Sprint network calls you.
As a VERY long-term Sprint user (1999), I can say this could be nothing but good for me. Honestly, when my wife’s phone contract runs out in November I was finally jumping to T-Mo anyway. I might hang on a bit… might not even have to change to get the extra spectrum… 😉
If they do merge I don’t yoshi-son having any input on how the company is run. Sprint has been reacting to T-Mobile, not the other way around.
If they plan to continue the name “Sprin-T-Mobile”, then I am all out against this.
Otherwise I could not care less.
dont like the idea
Less competition never benefits the consumer, only the companies and shareholders. Prices go up, services gets worse. Hopefully this will fall through again.
I would be ok with this, the added leverage would probably finally convince me to move away from prepaid AT&T.
Been here, seen this before. Something tells me that if this merger gets done then Masayoshi Son could get in the way of any ideas down the line that Jon Legere would want to implement. Just my 2¢. Oh yeah, I wouldn’t want them to merge. Less choices would not a good thing.
First thing I thought too. I hope that this deal fails. I’m sure Masayoshi would make more from just selling his spectrum versus the whole company. Sprint as a brand is just worthless.