Sprint is among the top 4 in the US telecom industry. The company has quite a reputation and is used by millions of users. However, it is no secret that the top level management have been frantically looking forward for alliances and mergers. Reportedly they were in talks with rivals at T-Mobile over the same but the deal has fallen through. New reports indicate that Sprint is now looking forward to merge with Charter, who might not be interested too.
Reports from the Wall Street Journal indicate that Sprint has already sent a merger proposal to Charter. There have been talks between Sprint and Comcast too in the past. If the merger between Sprint and Charter does indeed take place, Wall Street Journal indicates that Softbank would like to remain in control of the merged company. This indicates that Softbank would be purchasing a part of Charter (It already owns 90% of Sprint).
Sprint and T-Mobile have been trying to combine since as early as 2013 however the deal keeps falling through. If these talks with Charter succeed T-Mobile will be completely out of the picture. The T-Mobile merger back then was to compete against the Big 2 of AT&T and Verizon as a combined force with combined spectrum, which would give them quite an advantage. However that doesn’t seem to be happening anymore.
Softbank has been trying to get cable companies involved for quite some time. They have even proposed some investment ideas to Warren Buffet. In another interesting insight from the Wall Street Journal report, this merger doesn’t necessarily “preclude a subsequent tie-up between the new group and T-Mobile.” This means that even after this merger there’ll still be room for more and perhaps then, talks with T-Mobile can be resumed. However it is safe to assume that they are out of the picture for a while now.
