Sprint to Halt Talks on T-Mobile Merger

[Megalith]

For the second time in three years, Sprint is preparing to leave T-Mobile at the altar after months of negotiations to bring together the two U.S. wireless providers. Directors at Sprint's parent company, SoftBank Group Corp., met in Tokyo last week and decided to suspend the merger efforts, according to people familiar with the matter. Officials at T-Mobile were caught off guard by the development.

SoftBank's founder and chairman, Masayoshi Son, is concerned about giving up too much control in the potential transaction, said the people familiar with the break-down in the talks. The two sides also have been unable to agree on a valuation for Sprint's shares, they added, though the talks still could be revived at a later date. SoftBank, which owns more than 80% of Sprint, had been in negotiations with T-Mobile's parent Deutsche Telekom AG on an all-stock deal that would give the German firm control over the combined U.S. company.

 

[Tiburon1186]

Good. Less market consolidation the better.

 

[darrpara]

Good. Less market consolidation the better.

I don't see how this is better. Without the merger it will take TMobile like 15+ years to get as many subs as AT&T all while not having the revenue base to further build out it's network while AT&T and Verizon roll out 5G and beyond. With Sprint on the decline we will end up with 3 carriers either way because SoftBank can't put more money into Sprint without triggering buyout clauses.

All this does is give Verizon and AT&T 15 more years of dominance.

 

[the-one1]

Too many words to just say: Sprint didn't like the price T-Mobile was willing to pay

 

[choppedliver]

I have little faith that Tmobile could cause Sprint to become a good company. I like my Tmobile the way it is.

 

[Braamer]

As a T-Mobile customer, this makes me very happy. Sprint is a garbage company.

 

[Bigdady92]

Wasn't this debunked on CNBC as false?

 

[Domingow]

As a T-Mobile customer, this makes me very happy. Sprint is a garbage company.

As a Sprint Customer, I agree.

Only saving grace for sprint IMO is their (goofy branded) MagicBox. It works great, it was free and I now have great LTE coverage in home, one weird side-effect is Bluetooth gets stomped on hard near the magicbox.

 

[SparkedFire]

I just switched to Sprint. AT&T is useless in a lot of situations in Central Florida. Sprint band 41 is pretty impressive.

 

[captaindiptoad]

Fucking good, fuck sprint. GO TMO!

 

[scojer]

T-Mobile would of had control over Sprint. I was rooting for the merger for more spectrum for T-Mobile to have better coverage. Oh well.

 

[Hallucinator]

CDMA jilted GSM at the altar??

Good.

TMO, stay away from Sprint - capisce?

 

[RayderR6]

German and Japanese companies fighting over who ultimately can control US companies, irony is so rich.