Sprint and T-Mobile are unlikely to announce their rumored and highly anticipated merger before September, according to Reuters.
{mosads}Citing sources familiar with the discussions, Reuters reported this week that a merger proposal is not expected before September as the companies are “continuing due diligence and preparing a detailed case for a deal.”
Masayoshi Son — chairman of SoftBank, which owns Sprint — has repeatedly said the U.S. wireless market needs more competition and pledged to start a “massive price war” if his company is allowed to acquire T-Mobile.
Last month, reports surfaced indicating that Sprint and T-Mobile were close to a $32 billion merger deal and the deal could have been announced as early as July.
While key terms of the deal had been agreed to last month, the two companies continue to work on the details, according to the report.
“The proposed transaction is taking extra time to finalize, partly because the companies are keen to bulletproof their arguments for a merger that is sure to face heavy regulatory scrutiny,” Reuters wrote.
The reportedly forthcoming merger from Sprint and T-Mobile would be the third major telecommunications merger in front of regulators this year, after Comcast proposed a $45 billion deal to acquire Time Warner Cable and AT&T proposed a $49 billion deal to acquire DirecTV.