Sprint Corp is mulling a takeover of smaller rival T-Mobile US and could make a bid in the first half of 2014, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.But the story on the Journal's website, which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter, also said that Sprint had not yet made a decision and was mulling the regulatory implications.Such a deal would be controversial and could be blocked by U.S. regulators. It is also possible that satellite TV provider Dish could compete with Sprint for the asset as Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen has previously cited a T-Mobile merger as a potential option for Dish, which is seeking to expand into wireless.Sprint, which is 80 percent owned by Japan's SoftBank , failed to comment and representatives of T-Mobile, which is majority owned by Deutsche Telekom, were not immediately available for comment. Dish declined to comment.
Shares of TMUS traded higher by 8.65% or $2.2/share to $27.64. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $16.01 and as high as $29.50. On average, 5173690 shares of TMUS exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 13508810.
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