T-Mobile Parent Company Eyeing Sprint

When a company in your portfolio is suffering in a lowly number 4 market spot that has it bleeding money, a logical course of action would be to purchase a better company, say the #3, to help augment the overall performance in that market. That is what Deutsche Telekom, the telecommunications company that owns T-Mobile is preparing to do. DT has reportedly been in discussion about acquiring Sprint Nextel, speaking with advisors at Deutsche Bank about the deal, and is expected to submit a bid within the next few weeks. Despite Catherine Zeta Jones’ best efforts, T-Mobile has been struggling behind more advanced networks like AT&T and Verizon and has also lost business to lower-priced services from smaller networks. DT hopes that the potential purchase of #3 Sprint can strengthen its overall place in the U.S. market, bringing in a total of 78 million customers. In a similar move, the company has also recently begun merging the equally poor-performing T-Mobile U.K. with French telecomm Orange. [via Telegraph]