Wireless providers T-Mobile and Sprint on Sunday announced plans to merge, emphasizing the potential benefits to the new company’s rollout of a high-speed 5G wireless network.
The combined company, according to an announcement, will retain the T-Mobile name and be headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. John Legere, current head of T-Mobile, will also be CEO of the new company.
The merger will be an all-stock deal, exchanging 9.75 Sprint shares for each T-Mobile share. That would create a company with an approximately $146 billion valuation including debt, largely focused on wireless data services. Competitor Verizon currently has a total enterprise value of $313 billion, but also owns substantial fiber-optic, wired telephone, and cable television operations. AT&T, which also provides wireless along with many other services, carries an enterprise value of $334 billion.
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“This combination will create a fierce competitor with the network scale to deliver more for consumers and businesses in the form of lower prices, more innovation, and a second-to-none network experience — and do it all so much faster than either company could on its own,” Legere said in a statement.
The combined companies will, according to the announcement, “employ more people than both companies separately.”