After years of will they, won’t they, T-Mobile and Sprint today officially announced that they’re going to merge. The third and fourth largest mobile carriers in the United States have decided to join forces and compete in this very competitive mobile market. The two companies have officially announced their intention to merge today but the deal is subject to approval from regulators and shareholders.
It has also been confirmed today that the combined entity is going to be called T-Mobile and existing CEO John Legere will get to keep his position. T-Mobile COO Mike Sievert will join the new T-Mobile as president and chief operating officer. Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure will get a seat on the combined entity’s board.
SoftBank, Sprint’s majority owner, is going to have a 27 percent stake in the new T-Mobile whereas T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom will get a 42 percent stake in the company. The rest will be with public stakeholders.
Once the deal is closed, the new company will be headquartered in Bellevue, Washington with a second HQ in Overland Park, Kansas. The press release sent out today mentions that the combined company will be able to take advantage of greater economies of scale to provide customers with more value. It also mentions that the new company will be able to light up a nationwide 5G network faster than either company could separately.
It’s still far from a done deal, though, as the deal has to receive approval from the regulators. They didn’t take kindly to the prospect of fewer major carriers in the U.S. when AT&T tried buying T-Mobile in 2011. Whether or not they will show stiff resistance this time around will only be known in due course.
Filed in . Read more about Sprint and T-Mobile. Source: businesswire