Comment (17)Ambitious SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son could face a tough road ahead in convincing US regulators that a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile is in the best interest of American consumers.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the SoftBank Mobile Corp. CEO is due to meet with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Tom Wheeler about the prospects of a merger. A wide range of topics is expected to be covered at the meeting. (See SoftBank's Son Keeps Sprint on Short Leash.)
The latest meeting comes after the WSJ reported that Son and Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) CEO Dan Hesse were met with skepticism about the merger by officials at the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice . (See Euronews: DT, SoftBank Back in Sprint Merger Talks.)
Son and other supporters of the merger say that the combination of Sprint and T-Mobile will allow the operators to scale to compete with AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless . (See Is SoftBank Ready to Reunite With Legere?.)
The flip side being argued by unions and others is that creating three massive wireless carriers in the US could further restrict consumer choice.
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— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading
