The proposed tie-up between two American telecom giants was formally called off this weekend.
Sprint and T-Mobile had been negotiations for months but ultimately decided not to go forward with a deal.
“The companies were unable to find mutually agreeable terms,” the businesses announced in a joint press release Saturday.
Last week, reports suggested that the deal was on the verge of falling through due to SoftBank Group-owned Sprint’s concerns about maintaining ownership control.
Both Sprint and T-Mobile stocks traded down on the news.
Now SoftBank, which already owns about 82% of Sprint, plans to increase its stake to up to 85%.
Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank Group and Chairman of Sprint, said in a statement that, “we are entering an era where billions of new connected devices and sensors will come online throughout the United States. Continuing to own a world class mobile network is central to our vision of ubiquitous connectivity.:
Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025
Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, Vinod Khosla — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before doors open to save up to $444.
Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025
Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, Vinod Khosla — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before doors open to save up to $444.
This isn’t the first time that a potential merger between Sprint and T-Mobile fell through. The two came close in 2014, but called the deal off because of regulatory concerns.
TechCrunch is owned by Verizon, a competitor of Sprint and T-Mobile.
