Is Sprint Gearing Up for Another Disastrous Acquisition?

Earlier this year, Sprint finally shut down the Nextel platform after years of technical incompatibilities within its network. That's why it's so peculiar that The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Sprint is considering bidding for smaller rival T-Mobile to put more pressure on AT&T and Verizon . SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, known as an ambitious leader, is reportedly pushing this possible deal that would be valued at more than $20 billion.

The biggest challenge that such a merger would easily be regulatory scrutiny. Seeing the domestic wireless industry move from four large national carriers to three could have detrimental impacts to competition and, ultimately, the consumer. That's especially true as aggressive as T-Mobile has been with its "Un-Carrier" ways, which have sparked many competitive responses from its larger rivals. If T-Mobile were to get swallowed by Sprint, consumers would likely suffer for it.

In this segment of Tech Teardown, Erin Kennedy discusses Sprint's latest move with Evan Niu, CFA, our tech and telecom bureau chief.

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The article Is Sprint Gearing Up for Another Disastrous Acquisition? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Erin Kennedy has no position in any stocks mentioned. Evan Niu, CFA, owns shares of Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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