T-Mobile and Sprint reportedly not planning immediate asset sales in merger

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More details on the rumored T-Mobile-Sprint merger have trickled out.

First up, a report from Nikkei Asian Review says that SoftBank has reached an agreement to merge Sprint with T-Mobile. SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom, parent companies of Sprint and T-Mo, will reportedly start working on ownership ratios and other details of the deal soon.

Another report says that T-Mobile and Sprint plan to announce their merger without any immediate asset sales. The carriers want to hold on to as much of their spectrum and cost synergies as they can before regulators ask for concessions to be made, say sources speaking to Reuters, but T-Mo and Sprint are prepping a strategy for how they’ll handle regulators asking for them to divest some of their spectrum licenses.

Rumors have suggested that T-Mobile and Sprint may be planning to announce their merger as soon as this month. Even if the two carriers do reach a deal, though, the merger must be approved by U.S. regulators before it can actually be completed.

Some people have already voiced concerns about this T-Mobile-Sprint merger despite the fact that there’s been no official announcement of a deal. Several U.S. senators have asked the DOJ and FCC to begin investigating the potential merger, saying it “could raise significant antitrust concerns and could harm consumers”, and a recent report claimed that DOJ career staff will likely recommend that the deal be stopped.

Thanks, Cameron!

Sources: Nikkei, Reuters

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