Sprint’s plans to acquire T-Mobile and merge the two companies hardly comes as a surprise. Both companie seem to be pretty eager at the idea and have openly welcome the merger, although there are some, namely their competitors, who don’t feel the same. In fact regulators have been reported to be deadset on the deal happening.
However it seems despite the detractors and potential roadblocks, Sprint appears to be moving on ahead with their plans. According to a report on Reuters, it seems that Sprint is one step closer to securing the financing that they might need in order to purchase T-Mobile. The report claims that Sprint has managed to line up eight banks who would be willing to help fund their acquisition.
The amount of money Sprint might end up needing could exceed $40 billion, with $20 billion coming from Japan’s Softbank, who owns a majority stake in Sprint, and $20 billion in the refinancing of T-Mobile’s existing debt. Global banks such as a JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group, Deutsche Bank AG, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup Inc. are reportedly on board with Sprint’s plans.
The merger is expected to be announced in August as the financing details are said to be finalized in the coming month. Last we heard, T-Mobile has also asked Sprint for a breakup fee of $1 billion should the deal not go through. It is interesting to see how confident Sprint is, despite seeing how AT&T had attempted to acquire T-Mobile and failed, but perhaps Sprint might be able to succeed where AT&T didn’t, who knows?