Sprint & T-Mobile Merger Might Still Happen in June; John Legere to Run the Result

[dgstorm]

Despite the unrest of U.S. regulators, it looks like Softbank is still planning to push forward with the deal for Sprint to purchase T-Mobile. According to industry insiders, Sprint CFO Joe Euteneuer and Treasurer Greg Block met with six large Wall Street banks to make sure they held sufficient funds for a Sprint buyout of T-Mobile. According to the intel, a bid may go forward as early as June of this year.

Apparently, SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son is confident he can quell the fears of U.S. regulatory agencies by making the case that the merger is pro-consumer and is actually necessary to foster better competition in the U.S. carrier market. To sweeten the deal, Softbank plans to put T-Mobile's John Legere in charge of the newly combined company.

Supposedly, one of the main problems regulators had with the deal was fear that Legere would be pushed out. He is now seen as a "rock-star" icon for shaking up the industry and fostering more competition. They were concerned that if Sprint became the owner of T-Mobile, then all of the headway that Legere has made in the industry would fade away. With Legere in charge of the final combined company, that worry could be nullified. There's obviously still quite a bit of work and a number of hurdles to overcome before this can proceed forward.

Sound off and let us know if you think a Sprint & T-Mobile merger is a good thing or not.

Source: Bloomberg

 

[Dusty]

The main thing I would want to know is what the coverage map would look like.

 

[Danvee]

IDK if they fill in each other's "voids" in coverage areas.
If so, they'd be a fair threat to AT&T, especially if they don't lock their phones down a la AT&T /VZW.

 

[Str8Aro]

John Legere tweeted about the 700 MHz block deal being finalized, yesterday. He linked to: Blog_Great Network News for Our Customers - T-Mobile US, Inc.
If a merger were to take place and the "Rebel" is in charge, there could be more shaking up the industry ahead. It could be a seldom seen "good for the consumer" era.

 

[Vulcan1600]

The networks aren't compatible so either Sprint will have to go GSM or the T-M towers will have to go CDMA. Either way there's going to be quite an expense ahead if this happens.

 

[akhenax]

The networks aren't compatible so either Sprint will have to go GSM or the T-M towers will have to go CDMA. Either way there's going to be quite an expense ahead if this happens.

Or they could keep both networks the way they are, and sell phones that are both GSM and CDMA compatible! I'm looking at you Moto X2

 

[Jeffrey]

They will most likely run 2 networks until they decide if it is profiable to merge into one. If they do merge, GSM would be the best choice as it is an international standard.