Yet again, T-Mobile and Sprint announce a merger

T-Mobile and Sprint announced a $26 billion plan to merge. The companies said that their transaction would be all-stock, just as it was the last time the two companies engaged in merger talks. In the first day after the announcement, market analyst Craig Moffett and others gave the deal tough odds before regulators.

Sprint has wanted a T-Mobile merger for years, but earlier discussions never panned out after the FCC and DOJ made clear they would oppose any combination of the number 3 and number 4 wireless companies.

Most recently, T-Mobile and Sprint parent companies – German Deutsche Telekom owns T-Mobile and Japanese Softbank owns Sprint – considered a stock-for-stock merger, where Deutsche Telekom would be the majority owner. About six weeks later, in November 2017, the companies ended talks after they “were unable to find mutually agreeable terms.”

Links:

It’s official: T-Mobile and Sprint announce plans to merge (FierceWireless, Apr. 29, 2018)

Sprint -10%, T-Mobile -2% as analysts fade merger approval chances (Seeking Alpha, Apr. 30, 2018)

Regulators would challenge a Sprint, T-Mobile merger (Speed Matters, Dec. 19, 2013)

T-Mobile, Sprint in merger talks again (Speed Matters, Sept. 22, 2017)

Sprint, T-Mobile end merger talks (Speed Matters, Nov. 6, 2017)