Sprint’s senior executives recently met with members of the U.S. Department of Justice to ascertain just how much opposition a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile might face.
The meeting included Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, which holds a majority stake in Sprint, and Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint. Justice Department officials told Son and Hesse that such a deal would “face skepticism” from government regulators, according to people familiar with the details of the conversation. Regulators appear to favor the current competitive environment, which includes four national network operators, as opposed to three were Sprint and T-Mobile to combine. Sprint already has commitments from banks to finance the deal.
SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom, which owns 67% of T-Mobile, have met to iron out the broad strokes of a merger/acquisition. Many details have yet to be finalized before an acquisition is formally proposed.
