Add Comcast To The List Of Rumored Merger Partners For T-Mobile

Not one to sit around and sulk after ditching its $45 billion bid to buy Time Warner Cable – or let a rival cable company beat it to the altar – the Lords of Kabletown are reportedly making eyes with the wireless industry, flirting with the idea of buying T-Mobile.

Reuters, citing German publication Manager Magazin, reports that Comcast is the new leading suitor to acquire T-Mobile – which just last week was reportedly in talks to merge with Dish.

Sources say that while T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom continues to shop around the wireless provider, it currently views Comcast as the most desirable beau.

And given the fact that Comcast has $45 billion burning a hole in its pocket that shouldn’t really be a surprise.

According to rumors that began swirling last week, Dish was looking to borrow $10-$15 billion to finance it possible wedding to T-Mobile.

Of course, the notion of a wireless-cable merger is nothing new. Shortly before Comcast scrapped its plans to buy Time Warner Cable, the idea was thrust into the universe (a prophecy, perhaps) that the company would seek deals with other media companies, namely Netflix, T-Mobile or Sprint.

A month later, T-Mobile’s CEO John Legere  made it clear that he’d be up for a coupling, saying during an earnings call that such mergers between cable and wireless companies weren’t far in the future.

“We think far too simplistically about the four major carriers and what the structure of the industry is going to be,” he explained, “without understanding that the tangential players in various industries are touching mobile players” in a way that’s going to drive new partnerships and acquisitions.

T-Mobile, which Duetsche Telekom has been trying to marry off for quite some time, isn’t a novice when it comes to media mergers.

AT&T attempted to acquire T-Mobile in 2011, but that deal fell apart when regulators at the FCC and the Dept. of Justice raised concerns about the impact it would have on competition and rates.

In the wake of that merger collapse, AT&T had to pay T-Mobile billions in cash and spectrum which the company used to roll out an LTE network that now competes with the much larger market leaders. The company has also led the push toward consumers paying full price for their wireless devices in exchange for lower monthly data plan rates.

When reached for comment, a rep for Comcast tells Consumerist, “the company doesn’t comment on merger speculation.”

Additionally, sources familiar with the company are telling us that the cable giant currently appears to have no interest in acquiring T-Mobile.

Deutsche Telekom talks to Comcast about T-Mobile US sale -Manager Magazin [Reuters]

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