T-Mobile seals merger deal with Sprint that values the company at $26 billion

Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

John Legere, chief executive officer of T-Mobile US

Sprint and T-Mobile have sealed a blockbuster merger agreement, producing a telecom behemoth that values the combined company at $146 billion, the two carriers announced on Sunday.

The all-stock deal values Sprint at 0.10256 per T-Mobile share, or $6.62 a share based on T-Mobile’s Friday closing price of $64.52. That sum valued Sprint at around $26 billion.

The new company will preserve T-Mobile’s name, and will have dual headquarters in Bellevue, Wash. and Overland Park, Kan. John Legere, T-Mobile’s current CEO, will retain the top job in the newly formed company.

Legere tweet

“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,” said Legere in a statement.

The news confirms CNBC’s earlier reporting hat the two companies would strike an agreement. The companies came close to a merger agreement in November, before SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son pulled out after weeks of talks.

The agreement still faces stiff regulatory scrutiny from the Trump administration, which has thrown up resistance to at least one other mega-deal in ATT’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner.

If approved, the combined T-Mobile would have an estimated 120 million subscribers, but would be better positioned to compete against the two largest U.S. carriers, Verizon and ATT, both of which have more than 100 million subscribers each.