Sprint Abandons Pursuit Of T-Mobile

Sprint Corp. (NYSE:S) is abandoning its pursuit of T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE:TMUS) after Sprint and its parent SoftBank Corp. determined it would be too difficult to get approval from regulators, sources told the Wall Street Journal Tuesday.

Sprint tried to conjure up a bid for T-Mobile for months, with Sprint reportedly offering to make a $32 billion bid or $40 per share, but regulators ultimately got in the way, WSJ reported.

Officials at both the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission feared combining two major wireless carriers would harm consumers, and instead reportedly said they were happy with four cell phone carriers from which customers can choose.

Sprint wasn’t the only company vying for T-Mobile. France's Iliad put in a surprise bid for the company last week but the company denied Illiad’s request and said its $15 billion bid wasn’t strong enough, the WSJ said.

The deal with the French company was reportedly “dead on arrival” since the bid was too low and, therefore, there could be "no meaningful dialogue," insiders told the news site.

Though an outside party has not purchased Sprint, there will be a shakeup at the company. Chief executive Dan Hesse will apparently be replaced and an announcement about it is to be made Wednesday, sources told the WSJ.

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