T-Mobile Could Be Ready For A Merger Soon

By Sophia Vida April 26, 2017

T-Mobile Us Inc. had some very exciting news this week. After a federal ban expires this week, the company is open to merger talks. The wireless carrier just reported better than expected earnings for its first quarter.

For over a year now telecommunications companies couldn’t even think about mergers as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission had banned merger talks among these kind of companies. During this time the Commission has conducted a nearly $20 billion auction of airwaves from broadcasters for wireless use and companies that were involved had been restrained by the barring. The period will end on April 27th.

T-Mobile was the largest winner in the auction with an $8 billion bid. This purchase according to CEO John Legere, would allow T-Mobile “to compete in every single corner of the country.”

Legere said in a conference call, “The inorganic and organic possibilities for the company are tremendous. We are interested in looking at some of the possibilities.”

It has already been speculated since a February report from Reuters reported that SoftBank Group, the controlling shareholder of Sprint, would be ready for deal talks with T-Mobile’s largest shareholder, Deutsche Telekom AG. The talks are anticipated to happen after the air waves auction is over.

T-Mobile just reported first quarter earnings with net income coming in at $698 million, or 80 cents per share. EPS, excluding items) came in at 48 cents with adjusted revenue of $9.61 billion. Analysts on average had been looking for EPS of 35 cents with revenue of $9.67 billion according to Thomson Reuters.

The No. 3 wireless carrier in the U.S saw a gain of 914,000 net post-paid phone subscribers. Legere stated, “We’ve been beating up on the competition for over 4 years now while making wireless better for consumers. Q1 was no different with T-Mobile again producing the best customer and financial growth in the industry.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in T-Mobile US Rg (NASDAQ: TMUS) and have not been compensated for this article.