Federal judge set to approve Sprint and T-Mobile merger on Tuesday, reports say
A federal judge in New York is expected to approve the controversial merger of Sprint and T-Mobile on Tuesday, according to reports in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Attorneys general from 13 states and the District of Columbia sued to block the union, arguing it would limit competition among the nation’s largest wireless carriers and raise prices for consumers.
The New York Times cited three people familiar with the case in its story alluding to Tuesday’s decision by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero. A story in the Wall Street Journal said parties involved in the lawsuit had already been notified of the outcome.
The pending litigation was the last hurdle for T-Mobile’s $26.5 billion acquisition of Overland Park-based Sprint Corp. In July, antitrust regulators with the U.S. Department of Justice blessed the merger. And the Federal Communications Commission formally approved the deal in November.
Sprint employs some 6,000 workers at its Overland Park headquarters.
While T-Mobile is based in the Seattle area, it has pledged to keep a second corporate headquarters here.
Sprint and T-Mobile first considered a union in 2014, but that deal fell apart amid objections from federal regulators. The latest merger talks date back to at least 2017. In April 2018, CEOs from the two companies announced they had reached an agreement on the deal.
In a letter last spring, Sprint CEO Michel Combes repeated T-Mobile’s pledge that the merger would be “jobs positive.” By 2024, T-Mobile expects to create 11,000 new jobs, including 1,000 new jobs at a new customer experience center in Overland Park.
That pledge has been met with skepticism, though. A primary benefit of corporate mergers and acquisitions is the potential savings companies can realize by eliminating duplicate functions and streamlining staff. And it’s rare that companies maintain two separate HQs.
“I think there’s no realistic expectation that Sprint will maintain a major presence in Kansas City once the Sprint/T-Mobile deal closes,” Jeff Moore, principal with wireless industry research firm Wave7 Research, recently told The Star.
