Back in December, it was reported that Sprint -- the U.S.'s third-largest cell carrier -- was preparing a bid to acquire T-Mobile, the country's fourth-largest carrier. The deal, depending on the stake Sprint attempts to buy, could be worth more than $20 billion.Recently, a pair of Sprint board members met with the U.S. Department of Justice to discuss a possible acquisition, reports The Wall Street Journal. The report says the DoJ has concerns over a potential deal.
The conversation, which occurred in January, signals the seriousness of Mr. Son's interest in a deal, but also underscores his highest hurdle. U.S. antitrust authorities believe the current lineup of four national carriers is important to maintaining a competitive market, and department officials indicated at the meeting that a deal combining Sprint and T-Mobile could face regulatory difficulties, the people saidAccording to the WSJ, Sprint has lined up roughly $31 billion in potential financing and the company is not deterred from pursuing an acquisition.
Japanese carrier Softbank purchased a 70 percent controlling interest in Sprint back in 2012 for roughly $20 billion. T-Mobile is majority owned by German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom.
Previously, AT&T attempted to acquire T-Mobile but government intervention prevented the deal from concluding. Since then, the companies have had a growing feud as they launch ever escalating marketing efforts in an attempt to poach each other's customers.
64 comments
Apple CEO Tim Cook is attending the first state dinner of the Trump administration, which is honoring French president Emmanuel Macron, according to CNN. Cook is accompanied by Apple vice president...
Grayshift, the company that makes the GrayKey iPhone unlocking boxes that have been sold to multiple law enforcement agencies across the United States, recently suffered a data breach that allowed...
Verizon, the largest carrier in the United States by subscriber count, saw a monthly subscriber increase of 260,000 during the first quarter of 2018, reports Bloomberg, largely due to an increased...
Apple today released iOS 11.3.1, the thirteenth official update to the iOS 11 operating system. iOS 11.3.1 comes nearly one month after the launch of iOS 11.3, an update that introduced a Battery...
Apple today released a new security update for macOS High Sierra 10.13.4, which comes nearly one month after the first version of macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 was released to the public.
The new...
Apple will start paying 13 billion euros in back taxes to the Irish government from May, according to the Financial Times, nearly two years after the European Commission ruled that the company...
Apple and Samsung today submitted their witness lists for an upcoming retrial in the long running patent infringement battle between the two companies, reports CNET.
Neither Apple CEO Tim Cook...
Apple today shared two new videos in its "Life's easier on iPhone" series, which are aimed at encouraging Android users to switch over to an iPhone.
The first ad, "App...
