T-Mobile, Sprint Revive Talks -- WSJ
2017年11月3日 - 04:02PM
Dow Jones News
By Ryan Knutson and Dana Mattioli
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (November 3, 2017).
T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. are working to salvage their
potential blockbuster merger, people familiar with the matter said,
days after Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son appeared to call off the
talks.
T-Mobile made a revised offer, which Sprint is considering, some
of the people said. Terms of the new offer were unclear. The two
sides could reach a deal within weeks, the people said, but the two
companies could still fail to agree on deal terms.
T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere spoke with Sprint Chief
Executive Marcelo Claure on Wednesday, after a T-Mobile board
meeting in New York where directors agreed to renew their overtures
to Sprint to keep the deal alive, one of the people said.
Mr. Legere conveyed to Mr. Claure that T-Mobile and its parent
company, Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, didn't want the deal to
fall apart, this person said.
Sprint's board discussed the situation at a meeting on Thursday,
the people said. Key to the discussions are Sprint's valuation and
how much influence Mr. Son will have over the direction of the
combined company. Under the previous deal structure, Deutsche
Telekom would have fully controlled the merged firm, and Mr. Son's
influence would have been commensurate with SoftBank Group Corp.'s
minority stake.
Mr. Son runs Japan's SoftBank, which is Sprint's parent
company.
Last Friday, Mr. Son decided to call off the talks after
determining that Sprint is too important of a strategic asset to
give up control. Mr. Son believes millions of devices, including
robots, will one day be connected to wireless networks.
On Thursday, Sprint shares closed at $6.43 per share, giving the
company a market value of $25.7 billion. T-Mobile has a nearly $50
billion market value.
Write to Ryan Knutson at ryan.knutson@wsj.com and Dana Mattioli
at dana.mattioli@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 03, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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