Deutsche Telekom may have approved Softbank’s plan to buy T-Mobile

Reports of the Sprint T-Mobile merger have been coming in for the last few months now and yet no official bid has been submitted by the Softbank-owned third largest carrier in the U.S. Deutsche Telekom also has a say in this matter as it owns a controlling stake, 67 percent to be precise, of T-Mobile USA. Comments from DT top brass make it seem like they’re open to a merger and if a report from Japan’s Kyodo news agency is to be believed, Deutsche Telekom may already have approved Softbank’s plan to buy T-Mobile.

Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG is willing to keep a minority stake in a deal to sell T-Mobile US Inc to Japan’s Softbank Corp, but other details such as price and financing remain to be worked out, according to sources familiar with the situation. Softbank owns a majority of Sprint Corp S.N, the third largest U.S. wireless carrier. Deutsche Telekom owns 67 percent of T-Mobile, which has a market value of $27.6 billion and is the fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier. Earlier on Thursday, Kyodo news agency reported that Deutsche Telekom had agreed to a Softbank plan to buy T-Mobile. But sources familiar with the talks told Reuters that while the two sides are keen to get a deal done, a transaction was complicated, including the issue of getting regulatory approval – it would reduce the number of major U.S. mobile competitors to three from four. The sources said no decision was imminent.