SoftBank Is Said to Be Willing to Take Market Price for Sprint

SoftBank Group Corp., the majority owner of Sprint Corp., is willing to accept a stock-for-stock merger with T-Mobile US that values Sprint at or near its current market price, according to people familiar with the matter.

While the two sides haven’t agreed on an exact value, SoftBank doesn’t expect to receive much of a premium to Sprint’s current share price and may accept a deal that values the fourth-ranked U.S. wireless carrier at about its $34 billion market capitalization, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

Deutsche Telekom AG, the majority owner of third-largest U.S. wireless provider T-Mobile, previously told SoftBank it felt Sprint shares should be valued at a significant discount to their market value, two of the people said. In recent months, Deutsche Telekom has told SoftBank it’s willing to come up on value for Sprint, they said.

At current market values, a stock-for-stock merger would give SoftBank almost 33 percent of the combined company and Deutsche Telekom about 39 percent. Deutsche Telekom plans to consolidate the merged company’s earnings by controlling the board of directors, said one of the people. Other governance arrangements haven’t been finalized, the person said.

It hasn’t been decided whether Sprint shares or T-Mobile will issue shares to complete the deal, the people said.

Representatives for SoftBank, Sprint and T-Mobile declined to comment.