When T-Mobile CEO John Legere first addressed rumors that Sprint and parent company SoftBank might make a play to acquire T-Mobile USA, he openly bashed Sprint and its network. But in a sign that such a deal may in fact be in the works, the outspoken CEO has softened his stance in recent days and stated on several occasions that a potential Sprint-T-Mobile merger has several upsides.
In a recent interview with NPR, Legere said that a takeover by Sprint could be a good thing as long as he and his executive team are called upon to run the combined entity. Now, in a more recent chat with Bloomberg West picked up by FierceWireless, Legere not only sounded more open to the idea of a merger, but went even further to state that it might actually be a good thing.
“If the government wants us to have a competitive environment, you are going to make sure that the duopoly doesn’t use their prowess to crush the little guys and have this sub-1 GHz spectrum be moved all to them,” Legere said during the interview.
He continued, “We’re all going to need better scale and capability. The question starts to be: How do you take the maverick and supercharge it? We either need more spectrum and capability, a lot more investment, or we need consolidation.”
Subscribers thus far have not seemed to share Legere’s new opinion, as many are worried that a Sprint takeover would ultimately put an end to many of T-Mobile’s appealing Uncarrier offerings. Regulators may see things similarly — an analyst with Medley Global Advisors said that regulators may block a potential T-Mobile-Sprint merger in order to ensure that T-Mobile’s affordable prices are maintained.
A recent Cowen and Company study found that at $120 per month on average, T-Mobile customers enjoy the least expensive wireless service in the country among the four major nationwide carriers.
