Two giants overwhelmingly dominate the wireless market in the United States. Now a merger deal is in the works that could produce a robust challenger.
Sprint Nextel said Thursday that it was in discussions with SoftBank over a “potential substantial investment.” The talks, which began this summer, center on SoftBank, a Japanese telecommunications company, paying $12.5 billion for a stake of about 70 percent in Sprint, according to a person briefed on the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. The talks emerged just a week after Deutsche Telekom, the parent of T-Mobile USA, announced a reverse takeover of another smaller company in cellphone service, MetroPCS. The spate of deal-making is aimed at shifting the balance of power in a United States market largely controlled by Verizon Wireless and AT&T. They have more than 200 million customers — more than their next six competitors combined.
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