Shortly before noon Thursday, trading was halted for about five minutes in shares of both T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) and Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S). The two have been linked in merger talks, but the halt was due to volatility in trading, and CNBC is reporting that France’s Iliad has made an offer to acquire T-Mobile.
Iliad trades in Paris and has a market cap of about €12 billion. The company tried to cut a deal with another French telecom provider, Bouygues Telecom, a division of construction giant Bouygues S.A., in June, but that deal fell apart on a price gap of about €3 billion, with Iliad offering between €4 billion and €5 billion, and Bouygues seeking €7 billion or €8 billion.
T-Mobile and Sprint have reportedly agreed on most of the details of a proposed buyout: a total price of $32 billion for T-Mobile (about $40 a share), a $2 billion breakup fee, $45 billion in financing and the promotion of T-Mobile’s CEO John Legere to the top job at the merged company.
It seems unlikely that Iliad can match that offer, but details are not available yet.
Sprint shares fell more than 6% on the report, while T-Mobile’s rose by a similar amount.
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