AppleInsider Staff
U.S. carrier Sprint is said to be looking into the purchase of rival provider T-Mobile USA, which, if successful, would leave the nation dominated by only three major telecoms.
According to people familiar with the matter, the nation's third-largest wireless carrier is looking to put in a bid for fourth-largest T-Mobile, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The sources further claim Sprint is in the early stages of examining regulatory hurdles to the purported buy as it looks toward launching a bid in the first half of 2014. Depending on the stake Sprint attempts to buy, the deal could run upwards of $20 billion.
Looking at revenue for the nine months ending in September, a Sprint/T-Mobile consolidation could create a strong competitor to now-dominant Verizon and AT&T. As seen above, combined revenues for the third- and fourth-place telcos amounted to $35.8 billion over the nine-month period, compared to AT&T's roughly $45 billion and more than $51 billion for Verizon.
The success of Sprint's rumored takeover is already on shaky ground, however, as AT&T is still licking its wounds from a failed merger attempt just two years ago.
Interestingly, at the time, Sprint vehemently disagreed with the two companies' joining, to the point where it filed a formal petition with the FCC. AT&T's proposal was set at $39 billion.
Reportedly behind the T-Mobile takeover is Masayoshi Son, chief executive of Japan's SoftBank, which in July officially closed out a deal for controlling interest in Sprint. Son is known as an aggressive businessman and has expanded his communications technology empire through a series of acquisitions and takeovers.
The Journal further reports that Deutsche Telekom, current majority owners of T-Mobile USA, is mulling an exit from the U.S. market.
In all, a Sprint-T-Mobile fusion would bring together 53 million post-paid subscribers, compared to AT&T's 72 million and Verizon's 95 million.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Bon Adamson
Wesley Hilliard
Malcolm Owen
72 Comments
Being a current T-Mobile customer, I would seriously consider switching to AT&T or Verizon if this happens. Sprint had its time in my area, and that time has passed -- hence the move to T-Mobile. I'm not interested in giving them any more of my money.
If AT&T was not good enough, US Gov., why should Sprint be any better?
Seems to me, based on how well the two companies have been managed of late, it should be T-Mobile taking over Sprint wiith Sprint augmenting T-Mobile's GSM network and subscription model rather than the other way around. Sprint seems to have been just one bungle after another ever since they took over Nextel and maybe even before that. T-Mobile on the other hand came out of the aborted AT&T merger totally inspired and rejuvenated. (The billion dollar disengagement fee and the additional frequencies from AT&T didn't hurt either.)
Just what we need, fewer telecoms to compete.
Both the DoJ and the FCC have already expressed that they don't want any of the Big 4 Mobile Carriers merging. For a company like Sprint, who is having a slow rollout of their LTE network, that along with how many current and former subscribers' complaints of how badly they're run from top to bottom, to possibly acquire T-Mobile, a company who has had a great year for 2013, this would be a nightmare for many consumers! Please have both the DoJ and the FCC intervene to block this possible acquisition immediately! In the meantime, let's find a way to start a petition to block this acquisition. God knows that Softbank's CEO will not stop at making a large bid!