The Circle of Acquisitions 3 of the top 5 U.S Mobile Carriers in Talks
The latest news in possible acquisitions of mobile companies comes from the Japanese mobile carrier Softbank. Softbank is in talks to take a controlling interest in Sprint, which would give them a much-desired break into the U.S market.
Sprint, which holds the number three spot amongst U.S carriers, was recently in talks with MetroPCS to acquire the business and gain a stronger hold of the market. Those talks fell through after the Sprint board voted against the acquisition and more recently T-mobile has been in talks to acquire the MetroPCS business see “T-Mobile may Acquire MetroPCS is this a Good Idea?.”
This announced deal with T-Mobile and MetroPCS had Sprint rethinking its strategy and it was reported that Sprint was considering a counteroffer with MetroPCS. This may however all change with Softbank coming into the picture. Additional reports are stating that the Softbank talks will keep Sprint from any further action with MetroPCS.
The Softbank deal would be an easy way for the Japanese company to get into the US game though it does bring up the question of why they wouldn’t have made a play for MetroPCS? It may be a strategic move to get the most coverage and base of users assuring a solid investment. Sprint has struggled to upgrade its network as fast as the competition from Verizon and AT&T.
The rollout of the LTE network has been slow for all of the carriers due to the significant costs involved and the coverage requirements. Data networks have been taxed with the major adoption of smartphone technology and have had all of the carriers rethinking their data and plan pricing causing confusion in the space.
Upon the news of Softbank’s intentions Sprint’s stock is up 11.5% showing the markets excitement over a potential deal.
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