SoftBank, Deutsche Telekom Reach Fundamental Agreement on T-Mobile US Buy

With the caveat that antitrust review and clearance from the Federal Communications Commission is required, and by no means certain, SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom apparently have reached agreement on the broad outlines of a Softbank deal to buy the assets of T-Mobile US.



That would merge Sprint with T-Mobile US, the number three and number four national U.S. carriers.  



Under the plan, Softbank will buy more than 50 percent of T-Mobile US shares through Sprint, directly from Deutsche Telekom, which owns 67 percent of T-Mobile US. The deal is valued at about $16 billion.



The chances of regulatory approval are highly uncertain at the moment, though. Some might rate the odds of success as high as 70 percent. 



Others rate odds of success at about 55 percent. And some think the  odds of success are no better than 10 percent.