---
title: "T-Mobile US → Sprint"
url: "https://mahouse.world/ma-deals/t-mobile-us-buy-sprint-2018"
type: "M&A deal"
year: "2018"
---

# T-Mobile US → Sprint

An all-stock merger that valued Sprint at about $26bn, or about $59bn including its debt, approved only after Sprint's prepaid brands and spectrum were promised to Dish as a replacement fourth carrier — a remedy that had largely unravelled by 2025.

Took two years to clear and reduced the US to three national carriers, seven years after AT&T's bid for T-Mobile was blocked.

- **Acquirer:** T-Mobile US (United States)
- **Target:** Sprint (United States)
- **Value:** $26B
- **Announced:** April 2018
- **Completed:** April 2020
- **Sector:** Telecom
- **Deal type:** merger

## Why it mattered

SoftBank, Sprint's controlling owner, had pursued T-Mobile in 2014, when the Federal Communications Commission's chairman wanted to keep four national carriers, and talks collapsed again in November 2017 when SoftBank would not give up control. The agreement of 29 April 2018 offered 0.10256 T-Mobile shares for each Sprint share, valuing the combined company at about $146bn, with Deutsche Telekom to own about 42% and SoftBank 27%. The case rested on 5G: Sprint's 2.5GHz spectrum alongside T-Mobile's 600MHz, more than $6bn a year of cost savings and up to $40bn of investment in three years.

The Justice Department approved in July 2019 on condition that Boost, Virgin Mobile and Sprint's prepaid business went to Dish for $1.4bn, with Sprint's 800MHz spectrum to follow for $3.6bn; the FCC approved by 3–2 with 5G coverage commitments. Attorneys-general of 13 states and the District of Columbia sued to block the deal, arguing it would raise prices by $4.5bn a year, but in February 2020 Judge Victor Marrero ruled that Sprint had no sustainable long-term competitive strategy. With Sprint weakening, SoftBank agreed to surrender about 48.8 million of its new shares, leaving it with 24% and Deutsche Telekom with 43%. The merger closed on 1 April 2020, and Mike Sievert succeeded John Legere as chief executive.

## What it left behind

The Sprint brand was retired in August 2020, and Sprint's 2.5GHz spectrum became T-Mobile's largest block: at the end of 2025 it averaged 185MHz of it nationwide, nearly half its low- and mid-band holdings. Deutsche Telekom held 51.4% by April 2023, and T-Mobile kept buying — Mint Mobile, then UScellular's wireless operations in August 2025 — to reach 140 million customers, second in the United States.

The remedy fared worse. Dish bought Boost in July 2020 with 9.3 million customers but never bought the 800MHz licences; T-Mobile agreed in 2025 to sell them to Grain Management for $2.9bn. In 2025 Dish announced it would shut down its own 5G network, sell most of its spectrum to AT&T and run Boost on AT&T's network. Remedies that try to build a new rival from divested parts shift the risk to the buyer of those parts: the merged company kept its scale, while the would-be fourth carrier gave up its own network five years after buying Boost.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merger_of_Sprint_Corporation_and_T-Mobile_US