News broke today that Sprint’s parent company Softbank and T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom had ceased talks concerning a possible merger(NYT), citing growing concerns over the deal’s likelihood to get rejected by telecom regulatory authorities. This essentially leaves Free (Iliad) as the only potential acquirer, after Iliad CEO Xavier Niel announced an offer last week to purchase T-Mobile.
The deal itself was well under what Sprint was offering, though Niel must’ve known that the T-Mobile/Sprint merger was falling apart – nonetheless, Iliad has been reported today to be already in talks with investors to come back with a higher bid, after their original offer was rejected.
This move poised serial entrepreneur and investor Xavier Niel to bring the heart of his career to the United States, a market he has all but attacked through investments in US startups like Rapportive, Nest & others via Kima Ventures.