Sprint Corp has dropped its bid to acquire No. 4 U.S. carrier T-Mobile U.S. Inc after regulatory resistance showed no signs of softening despite months of lobbying, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.The move is a rare setback for Sprint's Japanese parent SoftBank Corp, whose billionaire founder Masayoshi Son had seen the acquisition as key to taking on U.S. market leaders AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc.Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. carrier, and T-Mobile have not ruled out consolidation in the future but concluded that a deal is unlikely to be approved at this time, the sources said. U.S. regulators have insisted that they want to keep the number of major wireless carriers at four."We didn't think the opposition would be this strong," said a SoftBank executive but added: "The environment will definitely change".
AT&T Inc. (AT&T), is a holding company. The Company is a provider of telecommunications services. Shares of T fell by 0.99% or $-0.35/share to $35.11. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $31.74 and as high as $37.48. On average, 22890200 shares of T exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 19505988.
Verizon Communications Inc. (Verizon) is a holding company. Shares of VZ fell by 1.1% or $-0.55/share to $49.66. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $45.08 and as high as $53.66. On average, 14006000 shares of VZ exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 11567207.
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