Despite efforts to push through their potential $74 billion merger plan, T-Mobile and Sprint have decided to abandon talks to combine the two large network carriers in a final twist of events. The two network behemoths finally ended their merger discussions on Saturday after both companies failed to agree on mutual terms for the union, though they did not go into details.
While agreeing to the appealing nature of the merger, T-Mobile’s chief executive officer John Legere reiterated that his company preferred a deal that would provide what he described as “superior long-term value for T-Mobile’s shareholders.” Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure was also of the same opinion and saw the benefits of a combined operation with T-Mobile even if no deal has been ultimately reached. Claure said in a statement:
“We know we have significant assets, including our rich spectrum holdings, and are accelerating significant investments in our network to ensure our continued growth.”
Although it remains unclear how the merger talks collapsed, it is believed that the two network giants were in disagreement as to which party would inherit majority control of the merged entity. As a matter of course, it has been reported that T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom would have fully controlled the combined company had the merger materialized, though Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son did not seem willing to relinquish control of the network carrier.
This is not the first time, however, that a merger deal between T-Mobile and Sprint had fallen apart: the two companies also withdrew from an earlier merger talk in 2014.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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