Sprint and T-Mobile reportedly near $32 billion merger deal

CC by: Intel Free Press

Sprint and T-Mobile reportedly near $32 billion merger deal
(Image credit: CC by: Intel Free Press)

Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier, is getting close to finalizing a deal to acquire the No. 4 carrier, T-Mobile, for about $40 a share, Bloomberg Businessweek reports, citing "people with knowledge of the matter." That values T-Mobile, the U.S. subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Telekom, at about $31 billion.

The deal isn't expected to be announced until July, maybe August. The big hurdle would be convincing antitrust regulators that the merger is good for consumers. "In order to compete against the big two, AT&T and Verizon, scale is essential," Satoru Kikuchi, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities, Tokyo, tells Bloomberg. "The mobile-phone industry is an industry that needs business investment, so the larger the better." Oddo & Co. analyst Alexandre Iatrides puts the odds of regulatory approval at 30-40 percent.

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Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.