美国国家公共电台 NPR T-Mobile, Sprint Announce A Plan For Merger（在线收听）

T-Mobile, Sprint Announce A Plan For Merger

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T-Mobile and Sprint have agreed to merge. It is not clear yet whether regulators will approve. But if the deal goes through, it would mean the big four telecom companies would become the big three. Here's NPR's Camila Domonoske.

CAMILA DOMONOSKE, BYLINE: John Legere, the colorful CEO of the country's third-largest wireless carrier, is wearing his trademark hot-pink T-shirt, plus a leather jacket with another bright-pink T-Mobile logo.

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JOHN LEGERE: I'm back.

DOMONOSKE: And, he's grinning.

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LEGERE: You know what these videos mean. It means I have big news to share.

DOMONOSKE: The CEO of the country's fourth-largest carrier jumps in.

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MARCELO CLAURE: Actually, this time, we have big news to share.

DOMONOSKE: Marcelo Claure looks positively staid in his Sprint T-shirt and blazer, but he's grinning, too.

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LEGERE: Today we're announcing that T-Mobile and Sprint have reached a definitive agreement to come together and form a new, stronger company.

DOMONOSKE: Their big news is not exactly surprising. The two companies have been considering a merger for years, but previous talks have always been dropped, in part because of intense skepticism from federal regulators. Now the two companies have a plan. It's an all-stock deal that would create a new T-Mobile worth more than $140 billion. T-Mobile would be taking on debt from Sprint, but the companies say the merger will allow them to reduce prices and compete more effectively with Verizon and AT&T. Sprint and T-Mobile also say together they could invest in a nationwide 5G network that could compete with broadband. But the deal still needs to be approved.

DIANA MOSS: This will get a very, very hard look.

DOMONOSKE: Diana Moss is the president of the American Antitrust Institute. She says the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission will check to see if the savings for consumers outweigh the loss of competition.

MOSS: And those efficiencies, they'd have to be merger-specific - couldn't get them any other way - and they would have to be verifiable. That is a heavy, heavy lift.

DOMONOSKE: T-Mobile and Sprint hope the government will call it in their favor, but it's still not clear what kind of reception they'll get from regulators. Camila Domonoske, NPR News.