Report: SoftBank To Call Off Sprint-T-Mobile Merger

SoftBank Group intends to call off merger talks between subsidiary Sprint Corp S and American rival T-Mobile US Inc TMUS as soon as Tuesday, according to a report by Nikkei Asian Review.

The Sprint parent could not settle a dispute with Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s European parent, regarding control of the resulting entity.

The forgone merger and ownership will diminish SoftBank’s intended penetration of the U.S. market, a strategy that includes a $50 billion and 50,000-job investment.

Neither T-Mobile nor Sprint — the U.S.’s third- and fourth-largest carriers — responded to requests for comment.

Just before 2 p.m. ET, CNBC's David Faber reported the deal "is running into governance and pricing issues, sources say. The pair are struggling over these issues in talks, but Softbank, which controls Sprint, is not planning to withdraw from the deal as soon as Tuesday as some reports suggest, these sources say."

Price Action

Sprint fell 13.3 percent and T-Mobile 5 percent on the news, which shook the entire telecom space.

AT&T Inc. T, Verizon Communications Inc. VZ and Time Warner Inc TWX also dropped as Crown Castle International Corp. (REIT) CCI, DISH Network Corp DISH, SBA Communications Corporation SBAC, Charter Communications, Inc. CHTR and American Tower Corp AMT traded up.

At time of publication, Sprint was trading down 7.7 percent at $6.45 and T-Mobile down 4.8 percent at $59.92.

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