T-Mobile, MetroPCS merger officially approved [updated]

America’s fourth-largest wireless carrier is about to get a little larger. Unnamed sources have told the Wall Street Journal that the boards for both T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom and MetroPCS (PCS) have approved a merger between the two American wireless carriers, thus giving T-Mobile another added boost as it prepares to launch its own LTE network next year. One source told the Journal that the newly-merged company “will be called T-Mobile and run by T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere.”

UPDATE: T-Mobile has officially confirmed its merger with MetroPCS in a company blog post. T-Mobile says that the merger is “structured as a recapitalization, in which MetroPCS will declare a 1 for 2 reverse stock split, make a cash payment of $1.5 billion to its shareholders (approximately $4.09 per share prior to the reverse stock split) and acquire all of T-Mobile’s capital stock by issuing to Deutsche Telekom 74% of MetroPCS’ common stock on a pro forma basis.”

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