Report: Sprint ready to engage with T-Mobile in bidding war for MetroPCS
Just over a day after MetroPCS and T-Mobile announced an agreement for the former to be acquired by the latter, it looks like Sprint might attempt to intervene before the ink settles. According to a report by Business Week, Sprint is prepared to offer MetroPCS a better offer than Magenta’s following the conclusion of their revaluation.
T-Mobile would be buying MetroPCS for $1.5 billion as it stands, and there are penalty clauses for either party backing out. We imagine Sprint will keep those penalties in mind when revaluing the company, though there’s no way to know what number they’re thinking about at this time.
On the flip side of things, T-Mobile is also reportedly not backing down — they’re also said to be prepared to best any offer Sprint brings to the table should the Now Network decide to go through with the war.
The last time Sprint proposed to take over MetroPCS — about the beginning of this year — the decision was blocked by the board, but at that point their offer reportedly transcended $8 billion. If the board thought those figure were too high then they may be more open to the acquisition at the much lower figure MetroPCS is currently willing to accept from T-Mobile.
We’ve been looking for some juicy industry happenings (well, that didn’t involve Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Motorola, et al suing the pants off each other) since the T-Mobile and AT&T merger failed, and this could very well end up being a very exciting development. [via Business Week]