T-Mobile Sprint Merger May Cost SoftBank $45 Billion

A few weeks back it was first rumored that SoftBank, which owns Sprint, is going to bid for T-Mobile U.S. While there hasn’t been an official announcement as yet, many reports have come since then claiming that the merger of the 3rd and 4th largest U.S. carriers is quite possible. At first it was believed that SoftBank will bid around $20 billion for T-Mobile, almost $19 billion less than what AT&T bid for it back in 2011. With Deutsche Telekom recently saying that T-Mobile’s value is back to the 2011 level, a new report claims that a bid of as much as $45 billion might be submitted, apparently SoftBank has already secured this much in funding from major financial institutions.

Deutsche Telekom owns a majority stake in T-Mobile U.S., so the deal won’t go ahead until its satisfied. Moreover, there are regulatory concerns as well. Top executives from both SoftBank and Sprint have reportedly met with the Department of Justice and the FCC in recent weeks so discuss if they would let the merger go through or not. It is claimed that while regulators haven’t completely denied the possibility, their major concern is whether the lack of a fourth nation carrier will actually increase competition against Verizon and AT&T.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: Sprint, T-Mobile