T-Mobile and Sprint Agree to MergeThe deal will combine the third and fourth largest wireless carriers in the U.S., which will be known as T-Mobile.
This story originally appeared onPCMag
After a number offailed attemptsover the years, T-Mobile and Sprint are officially merging.
The deal will combine the No. 3 and 4 wireless carriers in the U.S., which will be known as T-Mobile. John Legere, the outspoken current chief of T-Mobile will be CEO of the newly combined firm; Mike Sievert, current T-Mobile chief operating officer, will be president and COO of the combined company.
t - mobile将总部设在美女vue, Wash., with a second HQ in Sprint's current home of Overland Park, Kan. The merger values Sprint at $59 billion and the combined company at around $146 billion.
Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure will serve on the board of the new company, as will Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank, which will own 27 percent of the combined company.
Son has been pursuing this deal for years. In 2014, he offered $32 billion for T-Mobile, butgot shot downby the Obama administration's Department of Justice on antitrust grounds. In the wake of Donald Trump's election, rumors about the mergeronce again emerged, as GOP administrations are generally more favorable to these types of deals. But talks in the fall of 2017 ultimatelyfell apart.
That deal is now back on. Both companies are framing the deal as a way to "lead in the5Gera" and compete against Verizon and AT&T. ButPCMagmobile analyst Sascha Segan isn't convinced.
“问题是,elsewhere, when you get down to three wireless carriers, things get a little too cozy. Technology investment doesn't drop, but prices rise. That's been the situation in Canada for years -- with three dominant carriers, they have great networks, buthigh pricesand no nationwide unlimited data plans," hewrote on Friday.
"This sort of competitive analysis was used tostrike down the AT&T/T-Mobile mergerin 2011," he pointed out.
Stay tuned for how regulators react to this deal. For more from Sascha, check outhis Twitter feed.
