We’re sure many of you guys have heard by now that Sprint is interested in acquiring T-Mobile. Both companies have publicly expressed their interest on the possible acquisition, and according to a recent report from Bloomberg, that deal is said to be nearing finalization. The deal is rumored to be announced in July, assuming that the negotiations right now go according to plan.
Sprint is expected to pay $40 a share for T-Mobile and will offer 50% stock and 50% cash for the carrier. They will also be leaving T-Mobile USA’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom AG with a 15% stake in the company. There have also been talks about a termination/breakup fee, which would see Sprint pay T-Mobile a certain amount of money if the deal falls through.
According to people familiar with the matter, Sprint is only willing to shell out $1 billion, while Deutsche Telekom is pushing for $3 billion, but like we said, both companies could be reaching an agreement soon. As we had mentioned in the past, Sprint’s parent company Softbank has stated in the past that they’d like to avoid paying a nasty breakup fee as high as what AT&T had paid T-Mobile if possible.
While it seems that both sides seem more than willing to make this happen, there are regulatory hurdles in the way. The FCC is reportedly dead set against the merger and even Deutsche Telekom’s CEO has expressed his doubts. However Softbank’s CEO, Masayoshi Son, believes that the deal will go through, especially with AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV for $48.5 billion.