Deutsche Telekom raises stake in T-Mobile

Deutsche Telekom is making good on its promise to become majority owner of T-Mobile US, paying $2.4 billion to SoftBank Group to increase its stake to 48.4 percent in the US company. Deutsche Telekom (DT), based in Bonn, Germany, bought 21.2 million T-Mobile shares at an average price of $113 per share. The move raised its stake in T-Mobile by 5.3 percent. If this all sounds familiar, it’s because it was part of a plan announced in 2021. In September, Japan’s SoftBank agreed to exchange about 45 million T-Mobile shares for a 4.5 percent stake in Deutsche Telekom. As Bloomberg explained, the deal allowed SoftBank to borrow against its T-Mobile stake as long as Deutsche Telekom gets to vote the shares pledged as collateral. SoftBank still holds about 39.7 million shares in T-Mobile, now worth about $5.2 billion. DT made clear it wants to have majority ownership of the US operator, which in 2021 cemented its position as the Number 2 wireless provider in the US by subscribers. T-Mobile has become a darling of sorts for US investment analysts, boasting 5G leadership and synergies brought from the Sprint merger. T-Mobile is also shifting more attention to areas where it previously didn’t have much share at all, namely enterprise and rural markets.