In a deal that would combine the third and fourth largest wireless telephone companies respectively, Sprint is reportedly close to acquiring T-Mobile in a deal that values T-Mobile at around $32 billion.
The acquisition, which would need federal approval, may happen early this summer, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported on the deal Wednesday night, citing people familiar with the matter. The New York Times and Bloomberg also reported the story Wednesday.
According to those reports, Sprint would pay around $40 a share for T-Mobile, a premium of 17 percent on Wednesday’s closing price. It would also owe T-Mobile about $1 billion if the deal falls through, meaning Sprint’s making a big bet that regulators will allow the merger to pass unimpeded.
The Sprint/T-Mobile deal follows AT&T’s recent move to acquire DirecTV, which would reinforce AT&T’s position as the company’s second biggest wireless provider, following Verizon Wireless. Sprint and T-Mobile may in fact argue to regulators that joining forces is the only way to stay competitive with Verizon Wireless and AT&T in the long-term.
Re: Sprint Reportedly Set To Buy T-Mobile in Another Major Merger
For f*@$ sake, N)OOOO!!!
Part of the reason why AT&T and verizon have brought down their prices (you can get $45 for smartphone with 500 mb data in verizon now) is because of competition from T-mobile. I was wondering if that would happen as t-mobile's parent company is loosing money through gaining customers by paying ETFs etc.
Sprint is terrible in service and even if it isn't bad in 4G internet, they are a bunch of cheaters. They recently had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fines because they weren't respecting the do not call list. They always sneak charges in your bill and I remember that our family plan went down to its $70 where it should have been in our last month of leaving them when it somehow was always $90 after we signed up in a monthly family plan with them. Not only would virgin mobile, boost be more free to boost prices, but I bet straight talk and simple mobile won't get the best deal on data for prepaid plans. This would have a ripple effect on the remaining GSM carrier to screw the pooch by screwing the pre- and post-paid customers due to a monopoly.
I sincerely hope that this deal never gets through. Cingular was much better as itself compared to when AT&T took over some years back.