NEW YORK: Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. is prepared to give up control of Sprint Corp. to Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile US Inc. to clinch a merger of the two US wireless carriers, according to people familiar with the matter.
SoftBank has not yet approached Deutsche Telekom to discuss any deal because the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has imposed strict anti-collusion rules that ban discussions between rivals during an ongoing auction of airwaves.
After the auction ends in April, the two parties are expected to begin negotiations, the sources told Reuters this week.
Two and a half years ago, SoftBank abandoned talks to acquire T-Mobile for Sprint amid opposition from US antitrust regulators. That deal would have put SoftBank in control of the merged company, with Deutsche Telekom becoming a minority shareholder.
T-Mobile was worth around $30 billion at the time, but its market value has since risen to more than $50 billion as it overtook Sprint as the No. 3 wireless carrier by subscribers. Sprint’s market value is around $36 billion, roughly the same as in 2014.
Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Tim Hoettges has said in recent months that the German company is no longer willing to part with T-Mobile, prompting SoftBank to explore a new strategy toward a potential combination, the people said. Deutsche Telekom owns about 65 percent of T-Mobile.
SoftBank, which owns about 83 percent of Sprint, has been frustrated with its inability to grow significantly on its own in the US market, which is dominated by Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc, the two largest US carriers.
While SoftBank is still open to discussing other options, it is now willing to surrender control of Sprint and retain a minority stake in a merger with T-Mobile, the sources said. They asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential.
The Reuters report sent shares of T-Mobile surging as much as 7.9 percent before they eased back to close up 5.5 percent at $63.92. Shares of Sprint ended 3.3 percent higher at $9.30.
Investors have said a merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, ranked third and fourth respectively, would still face antitrust challenges, but made strategic sense as the industry moves to fifth-generation wireless technology.
Carriers will need to spend billions of dollars to upgrade to 5G networks that promise to be 10 times to 100 times faster than current speeds.
SoftBank, Sprint, Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile all declined to comment.
“We may buy, we may sell. Maybe a simple merger, we may be dealing with T-Mobile, we may be dealing with totally different people, different company,” SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son told analysts on the company’s latest quarterly earnings call earlier this month.
With the advent of 5G, Deutsche Telekom may receive offers for T-Mobile from other US companies, such as DISH Network Corp. and Comcast Corp. Sprint could also be an acquisition target for other companies, the sources said.
Dish declined to comment and Comcast did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Under CEO John Legere, T-Mobile has rolled out unlimited data plans and international roaming packages. Combined with aggressive marketing, this has boosted T-Mobile customer base at the expense of its rivals.
T-Mobile said it had 71.5 million total customers while Sprint had 59.5 million at the end of 2016.
T-Mobile is now almost as big as Deutsche Telekom’s German business. “We are not in the mood of selling the business,” Hoettges told investors last November.
While Sprint’s customer base has also grown under CEO Marcelo Claure and financials have improved, the growth was primarily driven by heavy price discounts. Despite new investment, the company’s network is still viewed by many consumers as weaker than its rivals.
Reuters could not determine how much of a premium SoftBank may want Deutsche Telekom to pay for control of Sprint.
Barclays analysts wrote in a note in December that a merger of T-Mobile and Sprint could result in $25 billion to $30 billion in synergies but said, “it is not imminently clear to us that the various regulatory agencies would reverse course having already blessed the outcome of a four-player market.”
The FCC and the US Department of Justice sent strong messages in 2014 that they did not want Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile to merge among themselves.
Since then, AT&T acquired satellite television provider DirecTV and signed an agreement to buy media giant Time Warner Inc, though that deal is still under regulatory review and has attracted criticism from US President Donald Trump. Verizon has also been exploring other acquisitions.
Antitrust experts said it was difficult to predict how the Trump administration would view a T-Mobile-Sprint merger since key antitrust appointments at the Justice Department have not been made.
SoftBank willing to cede control of Sprint to entice T-Mobile
SoftBank willing to cede control of Sprint to entice T-Mobile
Multilateralism strained, but global cooperation adapting: WEF report
DUBAI: Overall levels of international cooperation have held steady in recent years, with smaller and more innovative partnerships emerging, often at regional and cross-regional levels, according to a World Economic Forum report.
The third edition of the Global Cooperation Barometer was launched on Thursday, ahead of the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos from Jan. 19 to 23.
“The takeaway of the Global Cooperation Barometer is that while multilateralism is under real strain, cooperation is not ending, it is adapting,” Ariel Kastner, head of geopolitical agenda and communications at WEF, told Arab News.
Developed alongside McKinsey & Company, the report uses 41 metrics to track global cooperation in five areas: Trade and capital; innovation and technology; climate and natural capital; health and wellness; and peace and security.
The pace of cooperation differs across sectors, with peace and security seeing the largest decline. Cooperation weakened across every tracked metric as conflicts intensified, military spending rose and multilateral mechanisms struggled to contain crises.
By contrast, climate and nature, alongside innovation and technology, recorded the strongest increases.
Rising finance flows and global supply chains supported record deployment of clean technologies, even as progress remained insufficient to meet global targets.
Despite tighter controls, cross-border data flows, IT services and digital connectivity continued to expand, underscoring the resilience of technology cooperation amid increasing restrictions.
The report found that collaboration in critical technologies is increasingly being channeled through smaller, aligned groupings rather than broad multilateral frameworks.
This reflects a broader shift, Kastner said, highlighting the trend toward “pragmatic forms of collaboration — at the regional level or among smaller groups of countries — that advance both shared priorities and national interests.”
“In the Gulf, for example, partnerships and investments with Asia, Europe and Africa in areas such as energy, technology and infrastructure, illustrate how focused collaboration can deliver results despite broader, global headwinds,” he said.
Meanwhile, health and wellness and trade and capital remained flat.
Health outcomes have so far held up following the pandemic, but sharp declines in development assistance are placing growing strain on lower- and middle-income countries.
In trade, cooperation remained above pre-pandemic levels, with goods volumes continuing to grow, albeit at a slower pace than the global economy, while services and selected capital flows showed stronger momentum.
The report also highlights the growing role of smaller, trade-dependent economies in sustaining global cooperation through initiatives such as the Future of Investment and Trade Partnership, launched in September 2025 by the UAE, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland.
Looking ahead, maintaining open channels of communication will be critical, Kastner said.
“Crucially, the building block of cooperation in today’s more uncertain era is dialogue — parties can only identify areas of common ground by speaking with one another.”
