Will Sprint Win a Bidding War for T-Mobile?

Telecom & Wireless

Published: July 31, 2014 1:47 pm

Last Updated: April 28, 2020 10:36 am

Now that French telecom provider Iliad S.A. has confirmed that it is offering to acquire 56.6% of T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) for $15 billion, or $33 a share, the negotiations between T-Mobile and Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) potentially get a lot more interesting. Iliad is offering $1 dollar per share more, but its offer is limited to 56.6% of T-Mobile’s stock.

Sprint and T-Mobile are believed to have settled on a price of around $32 billion, or $40 a share. Looks like the cash favors Sprint. However, Iliad says that it values the remaining 43.4% of T-Mobile at $40.50 per share on the basis of $10 billion in synergies following its acquisition. How exactly that gets passed along to shareholders right now is not clear.

Another issue is that Iliad’s market cap of around $16 billion is well short of T-Mobile’s current value of around $25 billion. The French firm says it is currently talking to banks in an effort to round up financing for the deal.

Iliad is also an aggressive low-cost carrier in France and presumably believes that it can translate its success there into success in the United States. Earlier this year Iliad tried to cut a deal with another French telecom provider, Bouygues Telecom, a division of construction giant Bouygues S.A., 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.

On the face of it, Sprint’s offer looks better for shareholders, but getting the deal past regulators could be tricky. Iliad, by contrast, has no U.S. operations and getting approval for the acquisition should be much easier, if it can come up with the cash.

Sprint’s stock was trading down nearly 6% Thursday afternoon, at $7.31 in a 52-week range of $5.92 to $11.47.

T-Mobile’s stock was up nearly 6%, at $32.77 in a 52-week range of $22.95 to $35.50.

One conclusion we might draw from all this is that the price of poker is going up.

ALSO READ: Sprint Still Losing Subscribers, Still Keeping Investors in Suspense on T-Mobile Deal

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