Reuters/Dave Kaup
Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure speaks during the National Council of La Raza annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri July 13, 2015.
- T-Mobile will acquire Sprint in a deal that values the combined company at $146 billion.
- Current T-Mobile US CEO John Legere retain his role at the combined company, which will keep the T-Mobile name.
- Sprint tanked 12% on the news, while T-Mobile US is down slightly.
- Follow Sprint's stock price in real-time here.
Shares of Sprint fell as much as 12% in early trading Monday after the wireless carrier announced its merging with T-Mobile in a deal that values the combined company at $146 billion.
T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere made the announcement by tweeting a seven-minute video breaking down the merger, while also including a link to a website further explaining the combination. Germany's Deutsche Telekom owns two-thirds of T-Mobile, and will control the newly formed entity.
The announcement on Sunday marks the culmination of four years of on-again, off-again discussions between T-Mobile and Sprint - and was the third time the two rivals had tried to merge.
With 127 million customers between them, the two newly teamed companies are expected to compete directly with Verizon- the nation's number one carrier - and second-place AT&T.
The agreement involves T-Mobile exchanging 9.75 Sprint shares per unit of T-Mobile. Deutsche Telekom will own 42% of the combined company, while SoftBank - which controls 85% of Sprint - will own 27%. The remaining 31% will be held by the public.
Sprint's stock has surged 26% since the Wall Street Journal reported on April 10 that the two companies had rekindled merger talks. T-Mobile's stock has risen 8% over the same period.
The all-stock transaction values Sprint at 0.10256 per T-Mobile share, or $6.62 a share, based on T-Mobile's last closing price. That valued Sprint at around $26 billion. T-Mobile had a market value of $55 billion as of Friday's close, and the two companies have roughly $60 billion of combined debt.
Shares of Sprint are up 9% since the beginning of 2018, while T-Mobile is flat year-to-date.
Joe Ciolli contributed to this report.