T-Mobile will not be holding an earnings call following the publication of its consolidated financial results for the third quarter of the year, the Bellevue, Washington-based wireless carrier announced on Sunday. The company’s financial report is set to be released today at 7:30 AM EDT after which T-Mobile will broadcast a vlog starring Chief Executive Officer John Legere along with a prepared Q&A session, but investors and analysts won’t have a chance for live inquiries.
The company’s decision to not hold an earnings call was likely made in an attempt to avoid answering questions about a Sprint merger from analysts who’d likely make T-Mobile’s potential consolidation the focus of the conference. The two have been negotiating a tie-up for several months now and are reportedly close to coming to an agreement, having originally planned to make their merger proposal official alongside their Q3 2017 financials. The announcement was recently delayed as their negotiations stalled over some unspecified issues, with the deal now being expected to be formalized in the second half of November, according to some industry insiders. A company skipping on an earnings call is usually a sign of a major announcement in the making; Yahoo didn’t hold its Q3 2016 conference call with analysts and investors prior to concluding the sale of its core assets to Verizon and many other firms previously opted for similar moves in an effort to buy more time for various pending transactions. The fact that T-Mobile now did the same signals that the mobile service provider is in its final stages of negotiations with Sprint and the two are likely to announce their intentions to merge in the coming weeks.
A deal between T-Mobile and Sprint would likely see the former’s parent have a controlling share of the consolidated entity, whereas SoftBank would still increase the value of its stake in the U.S. wireless segment. Most analysts anticipate T-Mobile CEO to continue leading the merged company, with Sprint chief Marcelo Claure being expected to leave the firm together with his golden parachute. SoftBank previously attempted an outright acquisition of T-Mobile but was denied by U.S. regulators in mid-2014 and missed the opportunity to purchase the company for what may seem like a bargain compared to its 2017 value. A possible tie-up between the two now wouldn’t be a traditional acquisition but an all-stock deal, some insiders said earlier this year.