A PYMNTS Company

US: Sprint faces surprise T-Mobile merger competition

By  |  July 31, 2014

French telecommunications giant Iliad is reportedly looking to acquire a majority stake in US-based T-Mobile despite news that Sprint is seeking a merger with the wireless company.

    Get the Full Story

    Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required.

    yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today.

    By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

    Iliad, France’s fourth-place wireless operator, confirmed Thursday that it submitted a bid worth $15 billion to acquire the T-Mobile shares. According to reports, T-Mobile is about 60 percent larger than Iliad.

    Iliad’s announcement comes as Sprint parent company SoftBank was reported to be putting the breaks on its planned acquisition of T-Mobile. Now that financial details of the proposed acquisition between SoftBank’s Sprint and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile are public, reports say, SoftBank has less pressure to formally submit a bit for the company. Unnamed sources said a formal acquisition filing would not likely be made until September.

    Earlier reports said that Sprint would pay $32 billion to acquire T-Mobile and has additionally agreed to a $2 billion breakup fee should regulators block the transaction.

    Both the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice must approve of the transaction.

    According to reports, Deutsche Telekom did not appear to be keen on the idea that its T-Mobile unit would be acquired by Iliad. One source said T-Mobile had already rejected the offer.

    It is unclear whether Sprint’s decision to not rush a formal bid was affected by Iliad’s reported interest in T-Mobile.

    Full content: Biz Journals and Tech Crunch

    Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.