French telecom provider Iliad reportedly offered T-Mobile $15 billion in an attempt to counter its plan to merge with Sprint.
Sources of the Wall Street Journal said the mobile company bid $15 billion in cash to acquire more than half of T-Mobile's shares just to prevent a potential partnership with Sprint. The source added the company is interested in a "one-time opportunity to enter the world's largest telecoms market." The company believes it has a higher chance of closing the deal with T-Mobile compared to Sprint, because the business is based in France, not in the United States.
News of the merger of two U.S. telecommunication giants came out late last year when Sprint owner Softbank offered a buyout deal of $40 billion to T-Mobile. If the deal closes, it will undeniably challenge current industry leaders Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Latest updates on the progress of the deal stated that Softbank had received backings from some major banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group, Deutsche Bank AG, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup Inc., for a bridge loan of $20 billion, along with another $20 billion to refinance T-Mobile's existing debt.
AT&T attempted to buy Sprint too in 2011 for $39 billion, but failed after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that the merger would affect the best interest of the public, as it may harm the competition.
T-Mobile confirmed that it has received an offer from the French provider, but did not comment whether it was considering the proposition or not.
Meanwhile, Businessweek reported that there is a possibility T-Mobile will no longer need to sell itself to interested buyers, as its business is doing well now. T-Mobile CEO John Legere presented in the earnings report on Thursday that the company has added 579,000 new month subscribers last quarter, and has more than 50 million subscribers to date.
