Two of the US’ biggest carriers have officially announced their plans for a merger, after months of speculation and leaks. T-Mobile and Sprint will soon be operating under one company and one of the major reasons for this is to bring and push 5G connections to both sets of users. Sprint will be absorbed into the T-Mobile brand the latter’s current US CEO John Legere will be leading this new company. This is actually the second attempt for such a merger but they are hoping this time it will be met more favorably by the regulators.
Once T-Mobile fully absorbs Sprint, the new company will be worth $146 billion as the latter is valued at $59 billion and will be worth $26 billion in stocks. T-Mobile’s Chief Operating Officer Michael Sievert will serve as the President and COO of the combined business while Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure will join the board, alongside Masayoshi Son, Softbank CEO which is a major shareholder of T-Mobile US.
What will this mean for customers? They claim that combining the two company’s spectrum and cutting operation costs will lead to cost synergies of more than $6 billion. This may mean they will be able to deliver on their respective promises of bringing next-generation wireless technologies, specifically the much-awaited 5G. Their goal is to bring 15x faster speeds by the year 2024. This will also mean that they will be able to lower their prices and provide better services to existing customers. Hopefully.
However, some are skeptical about this merger, saying that turning the Big Four into the Big Three will not be good for competitiveness for customers. Also, they will have to get past the regulators in order for the merger to be approved and this is where other major mergers, including the aforementioned one between the two, always failed.
VIA: SlashGear
