SoftBank may be willing to take market price for Sprint

SoftBank Group, the majority owner of Sprint, is willing to accept a stock-for-stock merger with T-Mobile US that values Sprint at or near its current market price, according to people familiar with the matter.

While the two sides haven’t agreed on an exact value, SoftBank doesn’t expect to receive much of a premium to Sprint’s current share price and may accept a deal that values the fourth-ranked US  wireless carrier at about its $34 billion market capitalisation, said the people. Deutsche Telekom, the majority owner of third-largest US wireless provider T-Mobile, previously told SoftBank it felt Sprint shares should be valued at a significant discount to their market value, two of the people said. In recent months, Deutsche Telekom has told SoftBank it’s willing to come up on value for Sprint, they said.

At current market values, a stock-for-stock merger would give SoftBank almost 33 per cent of the combined company and Deutsche Telekom about 39 per cent. Deutsche Telekom plans to consolidate the merged company’s earnings by controlling the board of directors, said one of the people. 

Representatives for SoftBank, Sprint and T-Mobile declined to comment.