Sprint, T-Mobile near $32B deal

Published 12:00 am Thursday, June 5, 2014

Sprint and T-Mobile have settled on the terms of a $32 billion deal that would further reshape the telecommunications industry, according to a person briefed on the matter.

Both sides have agreed on a set of terms that would see Sprint, which is majority-owned by Japan’s Softbank, acquire T-Mobile, creating a more formidable rival to the two largest wireless phone providers in the United States, Verizon and AT&T.

Sprint would pay about $40 a share in cash and stock for T-Mobile, about a 17 percent premium to Wednesday’s price, according to the preliminary agreement.

After the deal, Deutsche Telekom, the majority owner of T-Mobile, would own about 20 percent of the merged entity. Deutsche Telekom currently owns about 67 percent of T-Mobile.

The deal is sure to face regulatory scrutiny, and the early terms of the deal would include a breakup fee of more than $1 billion that Sprint would pay T-Mobile if the deal is not consummated.

An announcement is still a ways off.

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