T-Mobile, Sprint Amend Deal Terms

T-Mobile and Sprint amended terms of their merger agreement through a unanimous vote by the companies’ boards, they said Thursday. The deal extends the outside date for closing to July 1, though carriers aim to close the deal as early as April 1, they said. A separate arrangement entered into by SoftBank Group will result in an effective exchange ratio of about 11 Sprint shares for each T-Mobile share after closing, an increase from the originally agreed 9.75 shares. SoftBank agreed to surrender about 48.8 million T-Mobile shares acquired in the transaction to New T-Mobile, making SoftBank’s effective ratio 11.31 Sprint shares per T-Mobile share, the carriers said. Other Sprint shareholders will continue to get about 9.75 Sprint shares for each T-Mobile share, they said. After SoftBank surrenders shares, Deutsche Telekom expects to hold about 43% of the new company’s shares, and SoftBank 24%, with the remaining third held by public shareholders, they said. “T-Mobile has agreed to re-issue to SoftBank the previously surrendered shares upon the achievement of certain stock price milestones by New T-Mobile during a specified measurement period, and subject to certain additional terms, as outlined in the letter agreement that will be filed by each of T-Mobile and Sprint with the SEC.”