T-Mobile and Sprint could announce a merger before the end of October, bringing the U.S. carrier number down to three.
If it seems like talks of a T-Mobile and Sprint merger have been going on for years, that's because they have – either officially or just murmurings in the rumor mill. (Sprint and T-Mobile's biggest shareholders respectively) began in May, and a suggests that we could see a merger between the two carriers by the end of October.
According to people that are familiar with the matter, Sprint and T-Mobile are working with one another to finalize the merger so that an official announcement can be made at the end of the month when each carrier presents its quarterly earnings to shareholders. The deal is expected to be an all-stock one, and the last major step that needs to be made is for a final valuation to be placed on Sprint.
T-Mobile currently has a market valuation of $52 billion, and with Sprint's stock price falling two-percent on Friday, it currently has a value of around $29 billion. Sprint's been trying to play catchup to T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon for a number of years now, but apparently, the carrier's numerous attempts haven't been enough.
T-Mobile will be avoiding the same mistake that AT&T made six years ago.
Assuming the merger goes through, there reportedly won't be any sort of breakup fee. AT&T tried to acquire T-Mobile back in in 2011, but when it failed to do so, had to pay the carrier a breakup fee of $4 billion – effectively giving T-Mobile a nice financial boost for working its way up to the number three largest wireless carrier in the United States.
With no breakup fee in place between T-Mobile and Sprint, neither carrier will face any sort of financial penalties if the deal fails to go through for whatever reason.
The United States has had four major phone carriers for a number of years now, so it'll be interesting to see how the marketplace changes (if at all) with only thee companies to choose from. We still have a way to go before the end of the month to find out what happens for sure, but either way, we're anxious to see what ends up happening.
If it seems like talks of a T-Mobile and Sprint merger have been going on for years, that's because they have – either officially or just murmurings in the rumor mill. (Sprint and T-Mobile's biggest shareholders respectively) began in May, and a suggests that we could see a merger between the two carriers by the end of October.
According to people that are familiar with the matter, Sprint and T-Mobile are working with one another to finalize the merger so that an official announcement can be made at the end of the month when each carrier presents its quarterly earnings to shareholders. The deal is expected to be an all-stock one, and the last major step that needs to be made is for a final valuation to be placed on Sprint.
T-Mobile currently has a market valuation of $52 billion, and with Sprint's stock price falling two-percent on Friday, it currently has a value of around $29 billion. Sprint's been trying to play catchup to T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon for a number of years now, but apparently, the carrier's numerous attempts haven't been enough.
T-Mobile will be avoiding the same mistake that AT&T made six years ago.
Assuming the merger goes through, there reportedly won't be any sort of breakup fee. AT&T tried to acquire T-Mobile back in in 2011, but when it failed to do so, had to pay the carrier a breakup fee of $4 billion – effectively giving T-Mobile a nice financial boost for working its way up to the number three largest wireless carrier in the United States.
With no breakup fee in place between T-Mobile and Sprint, neither carrier will face any sort of financial penalties if the deal fails to go through for whatever reason.
The United States has had four major phone carriers for a number of years now, so it'll be interesting to see how the marketplace changes (if at all) with only thee companies to choose from. We still have a way to go before the end of the month to find out what happens for sure, but either way, we're anxious to see what ends up happening.