Sprint shareholders sue for more information on T-Mobile deal

Sprint shareholders are suing the company, claiming its statements to Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) failed to disclose necessary interest, tax, and other financial metrics. The complaint argues that without the necessary financial metrics from both companies, Sprint shareholders are uninformed about the $59 billion T-Mobile-Sprint merger, and therefore unable to make an informed decision about it.

“While the company’s shareholders could, potentially, do research on their own to determine this information, the shareholders should not have to undertake this significant project merely to obtain this material information, which the company already has readily available,” the suit states.

The lawsuit also accuses Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s financial advisors of providing misleading analysis and opinions. You can read the suit here.

The merger faces opposition from outside Sprint as well. Public and consumer interest groups -- including Free Press, Common Cause, Consumers Union, Public Knowledge -- submitted comments opposing the merger, as well as Altice, DISH, and the Rural Wireless Association. CWA also filed extensive comments warning that the T-Mobile-Sprint merger will cost 28,000 jobs and arguing that it should be opposed as currently structured.

The FCC paused its T-Mobile-Sprint merger review shot-clock. The FCC keeps an informal 180-day review timeline to give the public a rough sense of the progress of the merger. “Additional time is necessary to allow for thorough staff and third-party review of newly-submitted and anticipated modeling relied on by the Applicants,” the Commission wrote.

Links:

Sprint Shareholders Sue for More Info on $59 Billion T-Mobile Deal (Courthouse News Service, Oct. 10, 2018)

Sprint shareholders’ lawsuit against Sprint for merger information (US District Court of Kansas, Sept. 28, 2018)

Opposition to T-Mobile-Sprint merger builds (Speed Matters, Sept. 4, 2018)

FCC pauses T-Mobile-Sprint merger shot-clock (Speed Matters, Sept. 14, 2018)