T-Mobile to acquire Sprint in October

T-Mobile and Sprint, the third- and fourth-largest U.S. wireless service providers to merge in October. The Softbank Group Corp offered to give up its majority ownership of Sprint reported by Reuters.

Japan’s SoftBank prepared to give up control of Sprint to clinch a merger with T-Mobile. Retaining a minority stake in the combined company. Sprint and T-Mobile, controlled by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG, are still weeks away from an agreement. Still have not settled on a share exchange ratio or even started performing due diligence on each other, the source added.

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However, that John Legere, T-Mobile’s outspoken chief executive. To run the combined company should there be a deal according to the source.The companies have agreed.

The development follows more than four months of on-and-off talks this year between the companies, and comes as the telecommunications sector seeks ways to tackle investments in 5G technology that will greatly enhance wireless data transfer speeds.

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Sprint’s shares rose 8.2 percent, while T-Mobile’s shares were up nearly 5.3 percent. Sprint, which had earlier approached cable company Charter Communications Inc about a potential merger. Now put plans for a bid for Charter on the back burner as it focuses on negotiations with T-Mobile.

T-Mobile overtaken Sprint in market capitalization the company is valued at about $51 billion, while Sprint has a market value of about $34 billion. T-Mobile has been gaining share from larger U.S. competitors AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc in a saturated U.S. wireless market, through network improvements and lower prices.

AT&T is in the process of getting its own transformative deal, its $85.4 billion acquisition of media conglomerate Time Warner Inc proved by U.S. regulators.

French cable mogul Patrick Drahi’s Altice USA Inc. However, is continuing to work on a potential bid for Charter, another source said. Altice declined to comment while Charter did not respond to a request for comment.

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SoftBank previously abandoned talks to acquire T-Mobile and merge it with Sprint. Three years ago, amid opposition from U.S. antitrust regulators. That deal would have put SoftBank in control of the merged company, with Deutsche Telekom becoming a minority shareholder.