Sprint’s Tokyo-based parent company is willing to sell the Kansas-based wireless company, but it also may be up for buying T-Mobile or deal with other companies, its chief executive said Wednesday.
The comments came from Masayoshi Son, chairman of Sprint and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp. that owns more than 80 percent of Sprint’s shares. SoftBank bought Sprint in 2013 and Son had hoped in 2014 to buy T-Mobile as well but was turned away by U.S. regulators.
“Now, we may buy, we may sell, maybe simple merger,” Son said, according to an interpreter’s version of his remarks during SoftBank’s quarterly meeting with analysts and investors in Tokyo.
Son acknowledged his 2014 effort to buy T-Mobile as well as his failed attempts to sell Sprint when a T-Mobile deal was blocked.
“Nobody’s going to buy it,” Son said Wednesday of Sprint and its weak financial and competitive position in 2014. “So we had no choice but we had to turn it around by itself.”
The turnaround is now in hand, Son said, allowing him to broaden SoftBank’s options to include selling Sprint and looking beyond a straight T-Mobile deal.
“We may be dealing with T-Mobile. We may be dealing with a totally different company,” Son said.
He also said Sprint could remain a standalone wireless operator in the United States because of the gains it has made since its failed push to acquire T-Mobile. Perceptions, he said, have not caught up with the reality that Sprint is no longer “a bottleneck” for SoftBank.
“There are so many options available, and we are looking into that. We are open for any options,” Son said.
Wells Fargo Securities analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said Son’s comments stirred questions from investors, particularly whether Sprint would be a seller.
“We don’t know the answer, but it is hard for us to see Softbank taking a minority position in a combined entity given (that) the momentum in Sprint is only just being seen,” Fritzsche wrote in a note to clients Wednesday.
Son’s comments come as wireless industry analysts have speculated about Sprint making another run at T-Mobile as well as many other possible mergers. Potential deals, according to analysts, also could involve a cable company such as Comcast or Charter buying T-Mobile, Sprint or Dish Network.
Sprint’s chief financial officer also recently said that a merger of the smaller U.S. companies may be necessary to compete with the two large wireless companies, which are Verizon and AT&T.
Federal regulators serving in the Trump administration also may be more willing to approve big mergers.
The Kansas City Star | Tribune News Service
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