The worst kept secret in merger romances is apparently getting achingly close to becoming a reality, with a new report claiming that the parents of T-Mobile and Sprint are putting the final details together on an arranged marriage that would see these two kids wed before Halloween. [More]
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Charter Decides It’s Not Particularly Interested In Being Acquired By Sprint Right Now
You would think that after just having finished a mega-merger with Time Warner Cable last year, Charter might want to take a break before diving into any more major transactions. And yet that hasn’t stopped Sprint from coming ’round knocking at Charter’s door. [More]
RadioShack Creditors Sue Sprint, Accuse It Of Destroying 6,000 Jobs
Just over two years ago, venerable but bankrupt electronics chain RadioShack cut a deal with mobile carrier Sprint to save thousands of jobs and keep 1,740 stores that were formerly part of RadioShack open. Only the unsecured creditors in RadioShack’s second bankruptcy now accuse its pal Sprint of using information from the contract to open hundreds of stores near the strongest RadioShack locations, dooming the reborn RadioShack.. [More]
Sprint, T-Mobile Reportedly Chatting About Potential Merger Marriage
After a week of playing it cool and dropping subtle, flirtatious, hints about the possibility of a merger, it sounds like Sprint and T-Mobile are ready to seriously discuss whether they want to try again to get hitched. [More]
Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Buzz Starts Up Again After CEO Says He’d “Love To Begin Talks”
If the U.S. wireless market were a John Hughes ’80s movie, Verizon would be Jake from Sixteen Candles — rich, expensive car, gets what he wants; AT&T would be Andrew from The Breakfast Club — dumb but popular, brutish, secretly just wanting to be loved; T-Mobile would be Duckie from Pretty In Pink — pugnacious, a flashy dresser, occasionally adorably profane; while Sprint would be Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — always seemingly on the verge of failure, barely tolerated, has parents with a lot of money. And now those rich parents think that teaming up their awkward son with plucky T-Mobile will help them both take on the bigger, more handsome competitors. [More]
Sprint Reportedly Talking To White House About Possible Merger With Comcast Or T-Mobile
In recent weeks, President Trump has repeatedly mentioned promised investments and jobs from Sprint and its parent company Softbank. Now the wireless provider is reportedly hoping to eventually turn that goodwill — and the Trump administration’s light-touch approach to regulation — into a mega merger, possibly with T-Mobile, Comcast, or others. [More]
Sprint’s Parent Company Spending $32 Billion To Buy A Piece Of Everyone’s Phones
A big tech deal was announced between two international companies today. Japan-based SoftBank bought UK-based ARM for $32 billion, a sentence that’s meaningless to most of us. But put another way, it starts to make a whole lot more sense: the company that owns Sprint just bought the company that makes the parts that make your iPhone actually work. [More]
Adorable Multilingual Robot Goes To Work On Cruise Ship, Never Gets Seasick
Pepper is a very popular robot, working as a concierge and sales assistant in retail environments all over the world. The 4-foot-tall humanoid android is able to detect and respond to humans’ emotional states, and will eventually be able to perform a variety of jobs that require interacting with the public. Its newest assignment: multiple Peppers will go to sea on Costa cruise ships. [More]
T-Mobile CEO “Sick And Tired” Of Takeover Talk
T-Mobile has long been considered a juicy, low-hanging magenta fruit that some bigger company could pick off and devour. But after years of being wooed by suitors from the Death Star, Japan, and France, T-Mobile CEO John Legere says it’s time to stop talking about his company being acquired by someone else. [More]
Sprint Is Prepping To Start A Price War, But Will Competitors Take The Bet?
Earlier this week, Sprint abandoned months of planning for a takeover of T-Mobile and fired CEO Dan Hesse after seven years of failing to make the company competitive with Verizon or AT&T. Now Sprint’s Chairman says the new CEO is prepping to start a price war to win over customers, but is Sprint really in a position to pick that fight? [More]
Sprint Gives Up Dream Of Wedded Bliss With T-Mobile, Gives CEO Dan Hesse The Boot
Ever since Japan-based SoftBank took control of Sprint, the company has been standing outside of T-Mobile’s window with a boom box held over its head, trying to woo the magenta-hued wireless company by claiming that the only way they could both survive is if they were together forever as one. But that all came to an end yesterday, when Sprint’s arms got sore, as the company decided to pack up its boom box and went home alone. [More]
French Company Iliad Wants To Enter U.S. Market With $15B Offer For T-Mobile
Three years after T-Mobile USA’s parent company Deutsch Telekom failed to make a lasting match between its magenta-hued wireless provider and AT&T, it’s now receiving requests for T-Mobile’s hand from suitors closer to home, as French communications company Iliad has offered up a meager $15 billion for the company. [More]
Letting Sprint Buy T-Mobile Will Fix Broadband Competition, According To Sprint Chairman
Yesterday at the Code Conference, Sprint chairman Masayoshi Son spoke about the (terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad) state of internet service in the United States. But there was a distinctly self-serving undercurrent to Son’s speech. [More]
T-Mobile Added More New Customers Than AT&T, Verizon Combined
Here’s some further evidence that breaking up AT&T’s plan to buy T-Mobile was the right decision: In the last quarter, the little magenta wireless provider added 1.3 million new subscribers, nearly 200,000 more than AT&T and Verizon combined during the same time period. [More]
Sprint Owner May Push T-Mobile Merger As Broadband Competition Solution
Since taking a controlling ownership in Sprint, Japanese telecom company SoftBank has made no attempt to hide the lust it has in its heart for fellow wireless company T-Mobile USA. Since then, federal regulators have basically told SoftBank to put its ardor on ice because there is already too little competition in the wireless market. But SoftBank may have a trick up its sleeve, coming at the deal through the lens of a market that is even less competitive — broadband. [More]
Why Sprint’s Case For T-Mobile Merger Is Logical But Bad For Consumers
Japanese telecom giant SoftBank owns a controlling share of Sprint and has made no attempt to hide its desire to acquire T-Mobile USA and merge the two companies into one. It’s a plan that makes sense from a business point of view, but could be a disaster for consumers. [More]