It looks like all the right pegs are starting to fall into place for Sprint's primary owner, Softbank, to buyout T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom. Recent financial moves by Deutsche Telekom strongly suggest they are at least in the planning stages of such a sale. They transferred their 67% ownership of T-Mobile US from a German holding company to a Dutch holding company. They claimed the move was simply part of an internal restructuring, and said that nothing should be read into the action. (That's like North Korea moving most of their army closer to the border and saying there is nothing to worry about.) Analysts are suggesting that Deutsche Telekom moved its T-Mobile holdings because the Netherlands offers favorable tax treatment on asset sales.
An additional clue comes from an even more recent report. Supposedly, at least two different banks have approached Sprint and each was willing to offer up to $50 Billion dollars for a merger with T-Mo. As the dominos start to fall, it's hard not to think these massive conglomerates won't push forward with this deal. After all is said and done though, the biggest hurdle to this deal will be ramming it through the U.S. regulatory process. If U.S. regulators weren't willing to vet the sale of T-Mobile to AT&T, it's possible they will feel the same way about this deal too.
Source: Reuters
