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T-Mobile, Sprint Agree to Merge

The deal will combine the No. 3 and 4 wireless carriers in the US, which will be known as T-Mobile. John Legere will be CEO.

 & Chloe Albanesius Executive Editor, News

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After a number of failed attempts over the years, T-Mobile and Sprint are officially merging.

The deal will combine the No. 3 and 4 wireless carriers in the US, which will be known as T-Mobile. John Legere, the outspoken current chief of T-Mobile will be CEO of the newly combined firm; Mike Sievert, current T-Mobile Chief Operating Officer, will be President and COO of the combined company.

T-Mobile will be headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. with a second HQ in Sprint's current home of Overland Park, Kansas. The merger values Sprint at $59 billion and the combined company at around $146 billion.

Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure will serve on the board of the new company, as will Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank, which will own 27 percent of the combined company.

Son has been pursuing this deal for years. In 2014, he offered $32 billion for T-Mobile, but got shot down by the Obama administration's Department of Justice on antitrust grounds. In the wake of Donald Trump's election, rumors about the merger once again emerged, as GOP administrations are generally more favorable to these types of deals. But talks in the fall of 2017 ultimately fell apart.

That deal is now back on. Both companies are framing the deal as a way to "lead in the 5G era" and compete against Verizon and AT&T. But PCMag mobile analyst Sascha Segan isn't convinced.

"The problem is, as has been seen elsewhere, when you get down to three wireless carriers, things get a little too cozy. Technology investment doesn't drop, but prices rise. That's been the situation in Canada for years — with three dominant carriers, they have great networks, but high prices and no nationwide unlimited data plans," he wrote on Friday.

"This sort of competitive analysis was used to strike down the AT&T/T-Mobile merger in 2011," he pointed out.

Stay tuned for how regulators react to this deal. For more from Sascha, check out his Twitter feed.

About Our Expert

Chloe Albanesius

Chloe Albanesius

Executive Editor, News

My Experience

I started out covering tech policy in DC for The National Journal, where my beat included state-level tech news and all the congressional hearings and FCC meetings I could handle. I later covered Wall Street trading tech before switching gears to consumer tech. I now lead PCMag's news coverage.

My Areas of Expertise

Getting my start in DC means I still have a soft spot for tech policy; Congressional hearings can sometimes be as entertaining as a Bravo reality show, for better or worse. But PCMag is all about the technology we use every day, as well as keeping an eye out for the trends that will shape the industry in the years ahead (or flop on arrival). I've covered the rise of social media, the iOS vs. Android wars, the cord-cutting revolution that's now left us with hefty streaming bills, and the effort to stuff artificial intelligence into every product you could imagine. This job has taken me to CES in Vegas (one too many times), IFA in Berlin, and MWC in Barcelona. I also drove a Tesla 1,000 miles out west as part of our Best Mobile Networks project. Of late, my focus is on our hard-working team of reporters at PCMag, guiding and editing their robust coverage.

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