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T-Mobile, Sprint to merge in all-stock deal
"T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. agreed on Sunday to merge in an all-stock transaction, following on-again, off-again talks to combine the two companies." foxbusiness.com/markets/t-mobile-sprint-to-merge-in-all-stock-deal
T-Mobile and Sprint to Attempt Merger
T-Mobile and Sprint have reached an agreement to merge. The combined company would be called T-Mobile. Now they face the regulators, and are already arguing for it as a move for America to remain competitive with China on 5G:
T-Mobile and Sprint reached a $26.5 billion merger agreement Sunday that would reduce the U.S. wireless industry to three major players — that is, if the Trump administration's antitrust regulators let the deal go through. The nation's third- and fourth-largest wireless companies have been considering a combination for years, one that would bulk them up to a similar size as industry giants Verizon and AT&T. But a 2014 attempt fell apart amid resistance from the Obama administration.
Consumers worry a less crowded telecom field could result in higher prices, while workers unions are concerned about potential job losses.
In a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure acknowledged that getting regulatory approval is "the elephant in the room," and one of the first things the companies did after sending out the deal's news release was to call Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. The companies stressed that they plan to have more employees following the combination, particularly in rural areas, than they do as stand-alone companies now. They also emphasized that the deal would help accelerate their development of faster 5G wireless networks and ensure that the U.S. doesn't cede leadership on the technology to China.
And they said the combination would allow them to better compete not only with AT&T and Verizon but also with Comcast and others as the wireless, broadband and video industries converge. "This isn't a case of going from 4 to 3 wireless companies — there are now at least 7 or 8 big competitors in this converging market," T-Mobile chief executive John Legere said in a statement.
T-Mobile press release. Also at Bloomberg.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday April 30 2018, @07:49PM
All their arguments in favor of the merger are baldface lies.
The real reason they're merging is:
1. The game theory is simpler with fewer players in the game. If there's only T-Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T, that makes it easier for the three of them to price-fix higher and provide crappier service without explicitly colluding than if there are 4 of them.
2. The upper management of both companies will make bank as Wall Street reacts favorably to the previous point.
The goal of all businesses is to become an unregulated monopoly, because that means arbitrarily large profits with pretty much zero accountability. If they can't become an unregulated monopoly in something essential, they'll aim to be the next-best thing, which is an unregulated oligopoly in something essential. In the oligopoly, the only possible accountability is one of the other players in the oligopoly trying to compete on price or service, but it's usually more profitable for each player to sit back and milk profits by overcharging and/or underproviding.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin