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Charter: We're not interested in a Sprint mega merger

Charter: We're not interested in a Sprint mega merger
Posted at 8:15 AM, Jul 31, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-31 08:15:38-04

Charter has shot down a plan for it to buy Sprint and create a media and telecom giant.

The proposed merger would have resulted in a huge new company controlled by Sprint's owner, the Japanese tech firm SoftBank, according to reports last week.

But Charter dismissed the idea late Sunday.

"We understand why a deal is attractive for SoftBank, but Charter has no interest in acquiring Sprint," the cable company said in a statement.

SoftBank and Sprint didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, an ambitious deal-maker, has made no secret of his desire to merge Sprint with another company. He said in May that the "door is open" for potential deals involving the U.S. wireless carrier.

A possible tie-up between Sprint and T-Mobile, which Son tried and failed to engineer under the Obama administration, has often been mentioned. But in recent months, reports have linked Sprint with Charter and Comcast.

Charter noted Sunday that it already has a deal with Verizon to buy data allotments in bulk and resell them as wireless plans under its own brand. It said it plans to "launch wireless services to cable customers next year."

In May, Charter and Comcast announced they had agreed to work together on a wireless offering, including similar reseller agreements or even developing their own wireless technology to sell directly to their customers.