Sprint is reportedly withdrawing their offer to buy T-Mobile, will also give CEO Dan Hesse the boot
Oh, happy day. According to a new report out of The Wall Street Journal, it appears Sprint may have tucked tail and ran in their effort to acquire T-Mobile. Sources claim regulatory hurdles are the reason for the sudden withdrawal, with parent company SoftBank finally deciding it would be too difficult to win the approval of officials. Both the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission have made it known that further consolidation of the wireless industry would only hurt competition and consumers in the process.
This now leaves the door wide open for French carrier Iliad to swoop in for the kill, having no current connections to US telecoms. Still, there were many who doubt Iliad can come through, with T-Mobile initially rejecting their offer and the French carrier looking for additional finances. New rumors have begun circulating that Iliad could be regrouping, giving it another go but this time with financial backing from either Dish, Cox, Charter, or anyone else interested in a joint bid for T-Mobile (although it remains hearsay at the moment).
Update: And now we have Bloomberg chiming in with their own sources reporting that Sprint will officially replace current CEO Dan Hesse in an announcement scheduled for tomorrow. Things just got real interesting…