Charter rebuffs Sprint's advances: no, thank you, we're with Verizon
Back on Friday, Sprint officially proposed to the cable giant Charter, just as rumored. With talks already a few weeks in, and a deal with T-Mobile eventually put on the backburner because of them, the merger with Charter would have created a huge conglomerate that was supposed to be headed by Sprint's owners SoftBank.
Today, however, we learn that the talks have fallen through over the weekend, or maybe Charter is playing hard to get, but, in any case, it issued a presser on Sunday that reconfirms its commitment to Verizon. As per Charter's spokesman Alex Dudley:
We understand why a deal is attractive for SoftBank, but Charter has no interest in acquiring Sprint. We have a very good MVNO relationship with Verizon and intend to launch wireless services to cable customers next year.
The Wall Street Journal reports that SoftBank could still go ahead and make an official offer to acquire Charter, but, given the size of the cable company, that would be much harder to pull off. Comcast already said it isn't interested in a Sprint merger, while T-Mobile is doing fine in its own right, adding subs and turning profits, so Sprint's advances might be turned down there as well, leaving the carrier with little options for now.
source: WSJ
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