Report: Sprint is actively working on financing for T-Mobile bid

With rumors circulating that Sprint is about to make a bid for T-Mobile in 2014, a published report on Saturday suggests that the company has already started shopping the banks to find financing for the deal. People close to the situation say that Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son has approached Credit Suisse Group AG, Mizuho Bank Ltd., Deutsche Bank AG, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Son is seeking $20 billion to finance the purchase of T-Mobile. Those six banks helped SoftBank finance its purchase of Sprint.

According to those in the know, the plan is for Sprint to make a cash bid for the 67% of T-Mobile owned by Deutsche Telekom. Sprint and T-Mobile would then combine. Deutsche Telekom would be more than happy to rid itself of T-Mobile despite the carrier's recent innovations that helped it gain 1 million in new subscribers last quarter. Still, Son has yet to sit down with the German mobile operator to discuss a deal.

Insiders say that the SoftBank CEO is concerned about having to pay a break-up free. This is part of every deal and when the AT&T-T-Mobile deal fell apart because of regulators' failure to approve it, AT&T was forced to give its target $7 billion in case and assets. Son says that a large break-up fee is impossible here because of the debt that SoftBank is already carrying.

Sprint isn't the only company interested in T-Mobile. Just a couple of days ago, we reported on a rumor that has DISH Network interested in T-Mobile. This could lead to a rematch between SoftBank and Sprint. This past summer, Son's company beat out DISH Chairman Charles Ergen to buy 78% of Sprint. DISH had offered more money for all of Sprint, but that bid was not financed while SoftBank already had the money to close its deal.

source: Bloomberg