Earlier in the week, we reported that DISH may be reconsidering their previous decision not to place a bid for T-Mobile. But, that reconsideration may have come too late as they now have competition from Sprint. Sprint, which DISH also placed a bid for and lost was previously bought out by Softbank(the Japanese Telecom Giant), and now it looks like Sprint may have some financial backing from the banks to help them win the bid for T-Mobile according to The Wall Street Journal. In short, DISH might lose out once again.
The word is that at least Six banks are currently working on proposals to help finance Sprint in the acquisition, and that the chairman of Sprint and the majority shareholder of Softbank, Masayoshi Son, was in NYC this week meeting up with the CEO of Goldman Sachs. What remains uncertain of the meeting is what they had talked about, but we can speculate that it might have something to do with T-Mobile deal as this is the most likely scenario, given the timing. All these proposals could end up for nothing if Sprint decides they want to pass on the opportunity to bid, and they may do just that as they haven’t confirmed a final decision on the matter. If that ends up being the case, DISH CEO Charles Ergen could get his wish to own a wireless company.
The entire T-Mobile deal could end up costing a total of more than $20 Billion by the time its all said and done. With a handful of banks offering to finance the costs for Sprint, there doesn’t seem to be any reason why they’d want to pass this deal up. Even if they do decide to go through with the bid however, there is still the hurdle of the FCC and whether or not congress will let the deal go through. The last time one of the other three largest carriers in the U.S. tried to buy T-Mobile, they were quickly shut down. Could it be any different this time for Sprint if they win the bidding war? The financing offers made by the banks are supposed to be ready by sometime in January. Which interestingly enough could end up being around the same time as CES, however if this were the case we’d expect the details to get swallowed up by all that is happening at the consumer electronics show, so perhaps it’ll be after. What do you guys think about the possibility of Sprint buying T-Mobile? Would it make things better or worse? Let us know what you think in the comments on our G+ post.