T-Mobile is buying Mint Mobile, the budget-friendly mobile carrier that's partially owned by Ryan Reynolds. In a post published on Wednesday, T-Mobile announced that the deal's valued at up to $1.35 billion and comes as T-Mobile looks to build out its prepaid phone offering.
The acquisition should close later this year and involves a 39 percent cash and 61 percent stock purchase of Mint's parent company, Ka'ena Corporation. The price could change, however, as it depends on Mint's performance.
The California attorney general's office announced Wednesday that it would not appeal a federal court decision approving the $26 billion T-Mobile and Sprint merger. In a settlement with California, the companies made a handful of promises like creating new low-cost mobile plans and jobs in the state.
According to the terms of the settlement, the New T-Mobile, as the combined company is called, is now required to make low-cost mobile plans available in California for the next five years, including a $15-per-month 2GB plan and a $25-per-month 5GB plan. It must offer 100GB of no-cost high-speed internet service and a free mobile Wi-Fi hotspot …
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Tomorrow is a day the wireless industry has long been waiting for, according to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal's well-guarded sources - a judge is expected to rule in favor of T-Mobile and Sprint in the lawsuit that attempted to stop their industry-changing merger. That should finally allow T-Mobile and Sprint to combine to take on AT&T and Verizon, as the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice have already approved the $26.5 billion deal.
That means we may finally see if the combined company will be as good as T-Mobile and Sprint have promised - or if there'll be less competition than ever.
T-Mobil …
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On Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that his office would drop its lawsuit opposing the multibillion-dollar merger between telecommunications giants T-Mobile and Sprint.
Texas dropped its lawsuit as part of a settlement with the proposed New T-Mobile. In the settlement, New T-Mobile committed to providing "5G wireless broadband coverage to areas where most Texans live" and across most rural parts of the state over the next three years. Texans who work for Sprint and T-Mobile should expect "substantially similar employment" once the merger closes.
The case is set to go to trial on December 9th
Texas' move is just the late …
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On Thursday, T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced that, if his company's merger with Sprint closes, the New T-Mobile would roll out a program to help provide children across the country with greater access to the internet and close the "homework gap."
T-Mobile is calling it "Project 10 Million," and it aims to provide 10 million households with free access to the internet. It's a $10 billion commitment from the proposed New T-Mobile that will take place over the next five years. The company has also vowed to invest another $700 million to put hardware, hot spots, and reduced-cost devices in 10 million households to help deliver access.
Eligi …
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On Thursday, T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced that if his company's merger with Sprint closes, the new company would offer free 5G service to first responders across the United States for the next 10 years.
The proposed New T-Mobile calls this program its "Connecting Heroes Initiative," and it's part of a broad "5G for Good" action plan that the company announced on Thursday. State and local public and nonprofit law enforcement, fire, and EMS agencies can sign up for the program on T-Mobile's website and receive coverage if the proposed merger with Sprint closes sometime next year.
"First responders are under more pressure than ever befo …
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On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission formally approved the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, an FCC official told The Verge. The vote comes months after the Justice Department greenlit the deal.
In May, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai first signaled that he would vote to approve the merger after the commission and the companies struck a deal that Republicans believed would help foster a faster 5G rollout. The other Republican commissioners, Brendan Carr and Michael O'Rielly, also voiced support for the merger at the time. The merger was pushed through on a party-line vote with Democrats dissenting, an FCC official told The Verge.
De …
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On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it would be charging ahead with a vote to formally approve the T-Mobile-Sprint merger; but Democratic senators are calling on the agency to reopen the issue for public comment before taking that vote.
Senator and 2020 presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) penned a letter along with others like Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) asking the FCC to receive feedback from citizens and advocates on the $26 billion telecom merger one last time before approving it, citing concerns that the deal will only entrench telecom monopolies.
"We …
T-Mobile and Sprint will wait to close their multibillion-dollar merger until a lawsuit from over a dozen state attorneys general is resolved, T-Mobile's chief operating officer Mike Sievert said on the company's earnings call today.
Sievert's admission came only a few short hours after the Justice Department announced its approval of the deal after months of negotiations to create a fourth viable wireless competitor through Dish Network. But the two carriers still face one last challenge in court before officially creating The New T-Mobile: more than a dozen state attorneys general are suing to block the deal.
"Our intention is not to clo …
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T-Mobile CEO John Legere took something of a victory lap this afternoon, using a call with investors to trash talk his rivals' 5G plans now that T-Mobile's merger with Sprint has federal approval. Legere called Verizon "dead in the water without a strategy" and said AT&T has been "lying" and "confusing" customers about its deployment.
Legere laid out a coherent and entertaining (and if you're his competitors, insulting) vision of the current state of 5G strategies while on the call. Of course, it's all premised on the idea that T-Mobile, once combined with Sprint, has the one true vision for 5G, which is more than debatable. But his explana …
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