 "Busted merger deal, hand shake")
Charter Communications isn't interested in a merger with Masayoshi Son’s Sprint following a published report that the Japanese billionaire was seeking such a deal, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Son, who is Sprint’s chairman, proposed a merger of his struggling wireless company with Charter, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
The proposal called for the creation of a new publicly traded company that would combine Sprint and Charter and be controlled by Son’s SoftBank. Since the end of May, Charter and Comcast had been in exclusive talks with Sprint over possible deals, including one that would allow the cable companies to resell wireless service under their own brands. The exclusivity ended this week.
The closing of that window paved the way for Sprint to resume discussions with T-Mobile US or other partners, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News. The cable companies are interested in a reselling deal that would let them offer Sprint’s wireless service under their own brands.
A combination of Sprint and Charter would put together the fourth-largest US wireless carrier with the No 2 US cable company. Sprint, based in Overland Park, Kansas, has a market value of almost $33 billion and even more in long-term debt. Revenue totalled $33.3 billion in the past 12 months. Son’s SoftBank holds an 83 percent stake in the carrier.
Charter, located in Stamford, Connecticut, has a market value of more than $100 billion and long-term debt of more than $63 billion. Its revenue totalled $40.8 billion in the past year.
