France's Iliad Makes Bid for T-Mobile US Bid Counters Earlier Offer From Sprint
Iliad makes an offer for T-Mobile US, threatening to disrupt the carrier's expected deal with Sprint. Above, a woman talks on her phone as she walks past T-mobile and Sprint wireless stores in New York. REUTERS French upstart telecommunications company Iliad SA ILD.FR -1.34% has made an offer for T-Mobile US Inc., TMUS +4.36% in a bold bid to counter an offer for the country's fourth-largest wireless carrier by Sprint Corp. S -3.99% , said people familiar with the matter.
The contours of the offer, which was made less than a week ago to T-Mobile's board, are unclear, but one of the people said it involves control of the U.S. company. It is unclear what, if any, the response to the bid has been.
T-Mobile US had a market value of $24.8 billion. Iliad's was €12 billion ($16 billion) and it's not clear how the French company would pay for such a deal. Iliad is working with several banks to secure financing, one of the people said.
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Sprint and T-Mobile US have been pursuing a combination for months, and the two sides have agreed on the broad outlines of a deal valuing T-Mobile US at more than $30 billion, people familiar with the matter have said. Any announced deal between Sprint, which is majority-owned by SoftBank Corp., is expected to face stiff antitrust scrutiny.
Iliad believes its offer for T-Mobile US, which is owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, would be favorably viewed by U.S. regulatory authorities because the company isn't active in the U.S., the person said.
Trading in shares of both T-Mobile and Sprint was halted after news of the Iliad offer broke, but the stocks have since resumed trading. T-Mobile shares recently traded up 5%, while Sprint shares fell 3%.