Wireless Consumers Are Actually Happy, Complicating Possible M&A
- Sprint would have to make case against price war it wrought
- Regulators face choice: keep a 4-player market or shrink to 3
SoftBank Said to Consider Sprint, T-Mobile Combination
Sprint Corp. needs to make the case to regulators that the public will be better served if a competitor is eliminated from the market. That’s a tall order at a time when prices are plummeting and coverage has never been better.
Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, whose SoftBank Group Corp. owns more than 80 percent of Sprint, still has designs on merging his prize U.S. asset with its closest rival T-Mobile US Inc. The last time he pushed the concept in Washington, the Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department signaled they were against any merger that would reduce the market to three players from four. The election of President Donald Trump and the appointment of Ajit Pai to run the FCC give Son an opportunity to try again.