Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody announced today that the state of Florida is joining the United States, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota in settling claims relating to the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. The settlement requires a substantial divestiture package in order to enable a viable facilities-based competitor to enter the market. Further, the settlement will facilitate the expeditious deployment of multiple high-quality 5G networks for the benefit of American consumers and entrepreneurs.
“Florida has been one of the states leading this investigation since the beginning, and I am pleased that they have chosen to join our settlement after completing their thorough review,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The merger, with the divestitures, will strengthen competition for high-quality 5G networks that will benefit Floridians and American consumers nationwide.”
The Department’s Antitrust Division and now seven co-plaintiff states have sued to block this transaction, and have agreed to settle the lawsuit based on the proposed settlement. That settlement, if approved by the court, would resolve the Justice Department’s and the co-plaintiff states’ competitive concerns.
Under the terms of the proposed settlement, T-Mobile and Sprint must divest Sprint’s prepaid business, including Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Sprint prepaid, to Dish Network Corp., a Colorado-based satellite television provider. The proposed settlement also provides for the divestiture of certain spectrum assets to Dish. Additionally, T-Mobile and Sprint must make available to Dish at least 20,000 cell sites and hundreds of retail locations. T-Mobile must also provide Dish with robust access to the T-Mobile network for a period of seven years while Dish builds out its own 5G network.
T-Mobile US Inc. is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. In 2018, T-Mobile posted revenues of more than $43 billion. Deutsche Telekom AG, a German corporation headquartered in Bonn, Germany, is the controlling shareholder of T-Mobile US Inc.
Sprint Corporation is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas. In 2018, its posted revenue was over $32 billion. Sprint is controlled by SoftBank Group Corp., a Japanese Corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
