Sprint and T-Mobile expected to announce merger details this month

Rumors about the Sprint/T-Mobile merger continue to make headlines, but that won't go for too long now. Apparently, the carriers are currently ironing out the final details of the deal, so we could have an official announcement laying them out sometime this month.

Bloomberg reports that the companies have reached to the point where they need to decide on the exchange ratio that will determine Sprint's valuation, one of the last steps before the merger could be officially announced.

Sprint and T-Mobile continue to discuss non-cash items, such as the location of the HQ that will shelter the leadership of the new entity resulting from the merger.

People with knowledge of the matter claim that a traditional breakup free will most certainly not be included in the final agreement as to avoid the risk of US regulators rejecting the merger, much like the merger deal between Comcast and Time Warner Cable Inc.

However, it's possible that SoftBank, the majority owner of Sprint, would still push for a cash termination payment in case it doesn't get what it wants from the deal by the time merger is announced.

Last but not least, both carriers want to go ahead with the merger as quickly as possible and finalize a deal agreement that can be released at the same time with the quarterly earnings, which is meant to help them avoid confusion over the status of the deal.