Sprint, MetroPCS were “hours away” from now-dead $8 Billion deal

CNBC reported Feb 24 that Sprint and MetroPCS were “hours away” from announcing an $8 billion merger agreement, but the deal was thwarted by Sprint’s board of directors.

CEO Dan Hesse was said to have endorsed the deal, which would have seen MetroPCS owning about 30 percent of the combined company, but it would have been a challenge. For one thing, MetroPCS and Sprint don’t operate in the same spectrum bands, according to The Verge. That means blending the two customer bases would have been quite difficult. On top of that, Sprint is already carrying substantial debt and won’t make money on its extremely expensive iPhone deal for several years, leaving the company with few options to generate cash.