Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Will Be Announced in Weeks Sprint and T-Mobile, a merger nobody asked for, is on track for a formal unveiling later this month, insiders tell Bloomberg. Sources familiar with the inner workings of the deal tell the outlet the companies are hashing out the final details of a merger, which should be announced alongside earnings at the tail end of October. The final details being negotiated include the location of the combined entity’s headquarters and appointments to the executive management team. John Legere is expected to remain as CEO of the new, merged company.

According to the Bloomberg report a breakup fee (which aided T-Mobile greatly when regulators blocked AT&T from buying the company) isn't being contemplated. "A traditional breakup fee isn’t expected to be included in the final agreement, two of the people said, reducing the risk for both companies if US regulators reject the merger," said Bloomberg. "In that sense, a deal would be similar to the all-stock merger announced by Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. in 2014, which didn’t contain a termination fee for either side. Comcast walked away from that deal a year later after regulators questioned its fairness." Despite the obviously negative impact of reducing overall competitors from four to three, most analysts believe the Trump administration -- and embattled FCC boss Ajit Pai -- will rubber stamp the merger. They'll likely try to argue that a combined Sprint T-Mobile will be a more effective competitor -- ignoring decades of history indicating that less competition due to merger and acquisition always results in higher prices for consumers. There are options available that would keep Sprint viable without reducing the total number of competitors (tie ups with Charter, Comcast, Dish, or Altice). More curious will be how brash, trash-talking CEO John Legere tries to sell the competition-killing deal to customers after years of proclaiming himself a consumer advocate on Twitter (assuming you ignore that whole More curious will be how brash, trash-talking CEO John Legere tries to sell the competition-killing deal to customers after years of proclaiming himself a consumer advocate on Twitter (assuming you ignore that whole willingness to gut net neutrality thing ).







News Jump California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news 5G Doesn't Live Up To Hype, AT&T's 5G Slower Than Its 4G; Cord-Cutting Now In 37% of Broadband Households; + more news FCC Cited False Broadband Data Despite Warnings; ZTE, Huawei Replacement Cost Is $1.87B, But Only $1B Allocated; + more Cogeco Rejects Altice USA's Atlantic Broadband Bid; AT&T Is Astroturfing The FCC In Support Of Trump Attack; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 136 comments



Anonf77aa

@sbcglobal.net 16 recommendations Anonf77aa Anon Future In the Short Term, it could be decent as long as T-Mobile's leadership is in charge.



But in the Long Term, going from 4 major wireless competitors down to 3 will typically lead to much higher prices as they're less likely to engage in price wars. Each will have well over 100 million customers and face little need to compete as roughly as they have in the past 3-4 years (since AT&T's attempt to buy T-Mobile failed).

karpodiem

Hail to The Victors

Premium Member

join:2008-05-20

Troy, MI ·WOW Internet and..

·Comcast XFINITY

11 recommendations karpodiem Premium Member I'm not against this I'm against pole regulation nonsense and non-competitive behavior/lobbying. If meaningful fixed wireless is 'real' it will come from T-Mobile. And it will use T-Mobile's 600Mhz spectrum in combination with some proprietary fixed line high frequency spectrum implementation that Sprint has.



You'd never get that sort of home broadband competition nationally from any of the entities you cite, because they lack the scale and capital. Or 'threat' to actually do something (T and VZ).



And this is why the merger will be approved. The assumption of Sprint's debt is concerning, but it's no more than what Verizon is paying Vodafone post-breakup or T with DTV/TW.

Takuro

join:2016-10-17

Chapel Hill, NC 3 recommendations Takuro Member Impact to MVNOs (4GCommunity)? I wonder if this means T-Mobile as to assume Sprint's deal to provide cheap unlimited data plans to the MVNO "4GCommunity"? They had some spectrum deal where-in part of the acquisition relied on Sprint promising to offer data for "educational" institutions. 4GCommunity then turned around and began selling unlimited hotspots for home internet use for a few hundred dollars per year.



Would be nice if they are required to uphold this, as it means a better network for those using that service. But then again, fixed wireless could come sooner and more suddenly than people expect. jcm4242

join:2012-12-12

Chantilly, VA Netgear WNR3500L

2 recommendations jcm4242 Member Dang. I went ahead and pulled the trigger to move from VZW to TMUS last week (» I was just getting ready... ). I really hope I don't regret the decision. The interactions I've had with TMUS customer service so far have been light years ahead of any I've ever had with AT&T, VZW, or Comcast (not much of a comparison, that last one).

pclover

join:2008-08-02

Santa Cruz, CA 2 recommendations pclover Member No issues with this I don't foresee any issues with this really. Sprint hasn't been competitive,



This would give T-mobile a lot of spectrum that they could use. Mostly high band however but a 5 Mhz slice in 850 Mhz would be helpful for their low band stuff.