Sprint might merge with T-Mobile or Comcast thanks to Donald Trump

According to a report from The New York Times, Sprint might merge with either T-Mobile USA or perhaps even with Comcast, the largest cable company in the US. Masayoshi Son, who is the founder and CEO of Sprint’s owner SoftBank, is apparently weighing his options with the help of his financial advisors ever since the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

A deal might be made thanks to the Trump administration’s push for lighter regulations and lower taxes. Several of SoftBank’s executives have already spent a day in Washington where they were talking to senior members of Trump’s economic team.

During the Obama administration, US regulators prevented potential mergers between AT&T and T-Mobile as well as Sprint and T-Mobile. A lot of people, including telecom analyst Philip Cusick of JPMorgan Chase, believe that this was a smart move. Cusick said that five years ago Sprint and T-Mobile were small players on the market but are now big enough to drive down prices.

More competition on the market is almost always good for us, the consumers. However, a possible merger between Sprint and T-Mobile may now become a reality thanks to Donald Trump. It looks like SoftBank really wants to join forces with another big company and is apparently even willing to give up control of Sprint to T-Mobile’s owner Deutsche Telekom AG to make it happen.

On the other hand, a merger with Comcast would not reduce the number of major wireless carriers on the market, but it would give Comcast a lot more power, which isn’t always a good thing. The company is always looking to expand and tried to acquire Time Warner Cable a few years ago, but the deal was blocked by US regulators.

For now, nothing has been confirmed. But the fact that Donald Trump is sitting in the Oval Office does give companies like Sprint and others more chances to merge with competitors, in order to increase their market power.