The Verge: Sprint reportedly preparing to purchase T-Mobile in 2014

[Family Man]

I just left Sprint last year for T-Mobile. WTF is going on here??? I'm eating good off my $70 unlimited plan.

 

[The G.O.D II]

Wasnt sprint almost bought out a few years ago? Where did they get the capital from?

 

[Strapped]

Softbank now owns sprint & will most likely add tmobile , they have the dough

 

[Liquid]

Lol Please sprint does not have the money to buy T-mo Even if Softbank tries to back the purchase it would not pass the feds. You know At&T would fight tooth and nail to stop it from happening.

Softbank has the money.

this shyt happens I might go back to cricket

 

[Smooth3d]

Softbank has the money.

this shyt happens I might go back to cricket

Yes they do but it would not go thru. It would be fought tooth and nail by customers, at&t and the feds.

 

[Smooth3d]

I have to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what to make of this story, but I’m certain it’s going to create a lot of conversation and debate. According to the Wall Street Journal’s sources, Sprint is looking in to the possibility of buying out T-Mobile. This would obviously create one larger carrier capable of competing with Verizon and AT&T.

Whether or not a purchase would go through is another matter entirely. AT&T tried – and failed – to buy T-Mobile from its owners, Deutsche Telekom just over 2 years ago, a plan which was blocked by the governing bodies. In that instance, it was clearly not in the best interests of American consumers. It would have essentially created a duopoly with Verizon and AT&T leaving Sprint with little hope of ever catching up.

This interest from Sprint is different entirely. According to WSJ, it’s the CEO of Japanese carrier, Softbank who’s wanting to drive the move. Of course, Softbank recently bought 80% of Sprint stock, placing the carrier under Softbank’s ownership. The Japanese firm has also purchased a $1.26 billion slice of Brightstar and grabbed a large chunk of Finnish game-maker, Supercell for $1.5 billion. Softbank are clearly not shy about spending money.

There are two big questions here. Firstly, with T-Mobile’s position in the market strengthening, is it really in its best interest to sell up? Secondly, as mentioned already, would the governing bodies allow the move? Circumstances are different this time compared to the AT&T bid. Joining up with Sprint would more than double the subscriber base, and would create a third genuine force in the smartphone market. So, when judging it purely based on the American smartphone market, it’s a good move for consumers.

However, we have to look at this as T-Mobile fans. In a financial sense, Tmo no longer needs to sell up. Its customer base has grown tremendously over the past 9 months and it’s raised $3 billion of its own cash through stock and debt sales in order to expand and acquire spectrum. Are these the moves of a company looking to sell?

As for Deutsche Telekom’s view on this, T-Mobile US has turned from being a struggling part of its empire to being one of the only bright spots in its business. Apart from in its homeland, T-Mobile networks have not had the best of times recently.

What do you guys think? Was this year’s effort just for the sake of making the company look good for potential buyers, or is it a genuine effort to provide competition to the big two?

http://www.tmonews.com/2013/12/wsj-sprint-looking-to-buy-t-mobile-us/

 

[GoldenGlove]

I'm a Sprint user with LTE so...



Will the have CDMA and GSM phones if this goes through though?

 

[Brofato]

at&T is much bigger than sprint tho

Doesn't really matter, I think. I can't see it being allowed. Although, I'm still reeling from the Comcast-NBC thing. I heard they have a bid out for Time-Warner, too, which kinda made me laugh.

Companies and their government friends are getting bolder each passing year.

 

[puppetmaster]

Sprint.Do.Not.Want.At.All


-P-

 

[Liquid]

Yes they do but it would not go thru. It would be fought tooth and nail by customers, at&t and the feds.

customers don't matter in deals like this

AT&T is MUCH bigger than Sprint. I think even with acquiring tmobile, sprint will still be in 3rd place overall, but in a position to compete with Verizon and AT&T

the feds will be taken care of

honestly it can happen, but I hope it doesn't...solely because I HATE sprint, but a big 3 > big 2 and 2 smaller carriers running into the ground.

 

[Liquid]

Doesn't really matter, I think. I can't see it being allowed. Although, I'm still reeling from the Comcast-NBC thing. I heard they have a bid out for Time-Warner, too, which kinda made me laugh.

Companies and their government friends are getting bolder each passing year.

it does matter, at&t + tmobile would have been the death of sprint as they would be going against 2 behemoths on their own.

this move? Means a legit big 3

 

[Blackout]

Oh hell no.

I didn't avoid sprint and joined tmobile for this shyt.

fukk sprint. Tmobile all day.

 

[itsyoung!!]

I was ready to come in and say how Sprint was a lot smaller than Tmobile

turns out I was wrong, they're the 3rd largest provider in the US

theres a big gap between #1 (verizon) #2 (at&T) and Sprint and T-Mobile though... we are talking 50+ million people difference between #2 and #3


350 million people in this country, Verizon and AT&T both have over 90 million cell phone customers(individual plans) each


Sprint is dumb as fukk though... when AT&T put up the bid for T-Mobile, the Government kept their 20 billion (where it went though, no one knows )

Sprint not prepared to take that kind of loss (keep in mind Sprint just got bought out last year)


even if this some how does happen

all your tmobile and sprint users who brag about unlimited data can get the fukk allllllllll the way outta here

Sprint already hates that it offers unlimited data and that was T Mobile last real selling point


So within 12 months, T-Mobile buys metro, Softbank buys Sprint and Sprint is going to essentially pick up 2 carriers not one because T Mobile owns metro Something aint right about that

 

[Liquid]

theres a big gap between #1 (verizon) #2 (at&T) and Sprint and T-Mobile though... we are talking 50+ million people difference between #2 and #3


350 million people in this country, Verizon and AT&T both have over 90 million cell phone customers(individual plans) each


Sprint is dumb as fukk though... when AT&T put up the bid for T-Mobile, the Government kept their 20 billion (where it went though, no one knows )

Sprint not prepared to take that kind of loss (keep in mind Sprint just got bought out last year)

fukk Verizon and AT&T

if this merge does happen, I'd pull for sprint against those two, just won't be on their network lol

 

[Slystallion]

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!