Sprint, T-Mobile Restart Deal Talks Again, WSJ Reports

• April 10 2018
• Rob Golum

Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc. have restarted merger talks, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter, marking another attempt to combine the No. 4 and No. 3 U.S. wireless providers.

Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc. have restarted merger talks, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter, marking another attempt to combine the No. 4 and No. 3 U.S. wireless providers.

Previous talks to merge the companies collapsed in November over disagreements about who would control the combined operation, the Journal said. The newspaper said it’s unclear what terms the two sides are considering.

Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint jumped 18 percent to $6.08 after advancing as much as 25 percent, the largest intraday gain since mid 2016. T-Mobile, based in Bellevue, Washington, rose 5.8 percent to $63.23 after climbing 8.1 percent in the biggest intraday gain since October 2016.

Both companies have controlling shareholders. Japan’s SoftBank Corp. owns almost 85 percent of Sprint, while T-Mobile is controlled by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG.