WIRELESS CARRIERS
Softbank willing to sacrifice control in Sprint tie-up
SoftBank, which owns about 83% of Sprint, has been frustrated with its inability to grow significantly in the US on its own
New York — Japan’s SoftBank Group is prepared to give up control of Sprint to Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile US to clinch a merger of the two US wireless carriers, according to people familiar with the matter. SoftBank has not yet approached Deutsche Telekom to discuss any deal because the US Federal Communications Commission has imposed strict anticollusion rules that ban discussions between rivals during an auction of airwaves. When the auction ends in April, the two parties are expected to begin negotiations, the sources said last week. Two-and-a-half years ago, SoftBank abandoned talks to acquire T-Mobile for Sprint amid opposition from US antitrust regulators. That deal would have seen Deutsche Telekom retain a minority stake in T-Mobile, down from about 65%. Deutsche Telekom CE Tim Hoettges has said in recent months that the German company is no longer willing to part with T-Mobile, prompting SoftBank to explore a new strategy to achieve a potential combination, the people said. ...
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