The Wall Street Journal just announced that Sprint Corp. is terminating its attempts to purchase T-Mobile US Inc, due to regulatory issues. Over the past several months, we’ve seen several reports that Sprint was in talks with T-Mobile over a buyout deal, and even that the deal was close to finalizing.
If the buyout had taken place, the results would be a decrease in competition and very likely an increase in cellular plan pricing. According to WSJ…
Sprint had been working on a bid for T-Mobile for months while studying regulatory opposition. Officials at both the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission had signaled early on they were happy with four major wireless carriers and feared further consolidation would harm consumers.
Per the Wall Street Journal’s report, Iliad, a French telecommunications company, also placed a bid on T-Mobile. However, Iliad’s offer isn’t claimed to have had any effect on Sprint’s decision to back out of plans to purchase T-Mobile, as the bid was too low for T-Mobile to accept.
T-Mobile has made several headlines lately with its “uncarrier” marketing campaign, an effort to pull customers away from Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. Many found the talks of a Sprint buyout strange considering how strongly T-Mobile CEO John Legere spoke against Sprint in his many press conferences.