T-Mobile and Sprint have ended merger discussions after being “unable to find mutually agreeable terms,” the companies announced in twin statements Saturday.
T-Mobile and Sprint had been negotiating for months without success. Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure and Tim Höttges, the CEO of T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom made a last-ditch effort to save the merger talks over dinner on Friday night, the Wall Street Journal reports, but were not successful.
“While we couldn’t reach an agreement to combine our companies, we certainly recognize the benefits of scale through a potential combination. However, we have agreed that it is best to move forward on our own,” Claure said in Sprint’s statement Saturday.
“We’ve been out-growing this industry for the last 15 quarters, delivering outstanding value for shareholders, and driving significant change across wireless. We won’t stop now,” T-Mobile President and CEO John Legere added in his company’s statement.
Had the two carriers combined, their customer base would have numbered more than 130 million, a number that could compete with industry giants Verizon and AT&T.