According to a report this week by Bloomberg, Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, remains interested in a potential combination of U.S. carriers Sprint and T-Mobile US despite past regulatory roadblocks.
SoftBank is the majority shareholder in Sprint. T-Mobile US is a subsidiary of Germany-based Deutsche Telekom.
Citing sources “familiar with his thinking,” Bloomberg reports that Son, who previously mulled the combo in 2014 but was met with pushback from U.S. regulators, “still would like to merge the U.S. wireless providers.”
T-Mobile US is viewed by a least one analyst firm as long-term takeover target. According to Gabelli & Co., potential acquirers of T-Mobile US could include Comcast, Charter Communications/Liberty Media and Dish Network. Longer term, the Gabelli analysts think SoftBank and Sprint could revisit SoftBank cofounder Masayoshi Son’s ambition to acquire T-Mobile US. SoftBank said in June it will raise almost $8 billion in cash by selling part of its stake in China’s Alibaba.
Back to 2014, Son sat with Charlie Rose for an interview regarding the potential combination of T-Mobile US and Sprint.
“We have to give it a shot,” Son said in response to a question as to whether such a deal can be made. “We would like to make a deal happen. But there are steps, details that we have to work out. Here comes two little ones not able to fight with enough scale. That’s no good and I think the situation needs to change. I want to be No. 1.”
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