Japanese technology giant, SoftBank is reportedly in talks with Deutsche Telekom to sell down its stake in the newly merged T-Mobile US.
Softbank is the principal stakeholder of US carrier Sprint, which merged with T-Mobile in a $26.5 billion deal that created the US’ third largest telco.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Softbank is discussing strategies to reduce its stake in the newly merged entity. Earlier this year, Softbank revealed plans to sell off around $41 billion of what it deems non-core assets, in order to reduce its debt pile and buoy its share price.
Analysts had speculated that Softbank may opt to reduce its stake in web giant Alibaba as a way of raising some quick cash. However, reducing the size of its stake in T-Mobile alos now appears to be a key consideration.
The newly merged T-Mobile is the US’ third largest telco, and now has the requisite scale and scope to challenge the country’s ‘big two’ operators, namely Verizon and AT&T, for supremacy in the US’ fledgling 5G market. Sprint’s existing 5G spectrum portfolio has been crucial to launching 5G in the States and has given T-Mobile a decided edge in the race to rollout services.
Source: https://www.itp.net/news/92499-softbank-to-reduce-its-stake-in-t-mobile