Deutsche Telekom in talks to sell T-Mobile USA to Sprint and keep a stake in the resulting carrier

[Poke]

I think they talked about doing this in the past..

Deutsche Telekom in talks to sell T-Mobile USA to Sprint and keep a stake in the resulting carrier - Phone Arena

 

[yaz96]

Lord no!!! I have T-Mobile and am quite happy. We have Sprint for work phones and they are awful!!

 

[Peter Parker]

Ironically that network was originally Sprint Spectrum and Sprint sold it off and it became Voice Stream which later became T Mobile. I wonder how Sprint plans to use the spectrum this time.

 

[stogie5150]

I just don't see an upside for either company. They don't share the same technology, so someone's is going to have to go. Changing out all the phones of the customers is going to be $$$ not mentioning the $$$$ keeping both networks going at the same time....maybe go to all world phones or something, CDMA and GSM....not to mention if this happens it will be one less competitor for Big Red and Big Blue.

 

[Steve Mehs]

The SprinT-Mobile rumor has been around for years, but this is the first time I has been Sprint being the one taking over. If Sprint has the majority share, I’ll be all for it. Verizon & AT&T need a beatdown and with Sprint & TMOs upwards of 85 million combined subscribers they’d start to feel the heat. I don’t see the government allowing it though, but then again they only reason AT&T and Verizon got to be as big as they are is because they bought out all the competition. I’m not a fan of T-Mobile but I have to give respect to the first provider to give Android a chance. If Sprint did takeover T-Mobile then the combined company would offer just about every voice and data protocol under the sun. CDMA, GSM, iDEN, WiMAX, HSPA, HSPA+ and possibly LTE.

 

[wallyhts]

Ironically that network was originally Sprint Spectrum and Sprint sold it off and it became Voice Stream which later became T Mobile. I wonder how Sprint plans to use the spectrum this time.

You sure about that?

I am not however I do know that Powertel won spectrum in an fcc auction which then was bought by Voice Stream then bought by tmobile.

 

[wallyhts]

So perhaps the triple play network

CDMA
IDEN
GSM

WOW!!!

 

[TheForce]

On the business siode- more chatter from the analysts does not hold much hope for this coming off--

Sprint, T-Mobile chatter signals weakness
2:25p ET March 8, 2011 (MarketWatch)

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Merger chatter between Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA that surfaced on Tuesday points to what many consider to be an unavoidable fact -- that neither company can compete effectively with the AT&T and Verizon juggernauts.

But a deal between the two iPhone-less carriers -- who run a distant number 3 and 4 in the U.S. wireless market -- does not look like it is going to happen anytime soon, unless Sprint and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom can get together on a rather large stumbling block: valuation.

One analyst said Deutsche Telekom is probably looking for about $25 billion, based on recent financial results, for T-Mobile, while the unit may be worth more like $15 billion to $20 billion, according to Bloomberg, which reported the talks. Analysts say T-Mobile lost market share in the fourth quarter.

T-Mobile also faces a spectrum shortage, the airwaves needed for transmitting calls and data. And Sprint is burdened with heavy debt on its balance sheet: $14.7 billion in net debt as of Dec. 31.

Most notable is the fact that such a merger would bring together two companies operating three wireless networks that all use different technologies. Sprint's been here before, and its combination with Nextel has been a disaster that has destroyed more than 80% of the combined company's market value since that deal was announced in December of 2004. Read full report on Sprint-T-Mobile talks.

But it seems clear for both companies that the current status quo is unsustainable. One side clearly leaked news of the talks in order to raise pressure on the other one. Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research told MarketWatch on Tuesday that, for both companies, "doing nothing is a bad option -- and merging might be slightly worse."

Not a great position for either firm.