Sprint ’s parent company SoftBank Group just bought $110 million more shares of Sprint, but the latter’s management literally isn’t buying it.

In the days following the collapse of Sprint’s (ticker: S) potential merger with T-Mobile US (TMUS) , SoftBank bought 18.3 million more shares of Sprint from Nov. 6 through 13, paying $6.04 each on average. SoftBank owns 3.33 billion shares, a stake of more than 83% in Sprint, according to S&P Capital IQ.

Meanwhile two executives have been dialing back, making their first sales on record.

On Nov. 13, Chief Financial Officer Tarek Robbiati exercised options for 90,500 shares and sold 363,500 shares for $2.2 million, about $6 each. The options had exercise prices of $3.44 a share and were set to expire May 2026. Robbiati now holds restricted stock units representing 1.9 million shares and options exercisable for 181,000 shares. He was named Sprint’s CFO Aug. 3, 2015, in a management reshuffle.

Since then, Sprint shares have rocketed 82% through Tuesday’s close. But that ride has been rocky, to say the least; the performance for the year to date, down 28%, reflects investor disappointment with SoftBank’s inability to get a deal done for Sprint, despite ties with the new American administration.


Jorge Garcia, Sprint’s chief legal officer, exercised options for 112,959 shares and sold an equal number for $700,000, or $6.18 each on average. The options had exercise prices ranging from $2.84 to $3.44 per share and were set to expire February 2026, at the earliest. Garcia now owns restricted stock units representing 818,000 shares and options representing 165,000 shares.

We recently took note of an analyst who contemplated SoftBank acquiring all of Sprint. Clearly, the future of Sprint is SoftBank’s call.





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