[Updated: Some clever person registered T-Metro.com in May of 2012! jlk]
Merger announced today. T-Metro (my name; not theirs…yet) will be the 4th largest carrier after Sprint Nextel.
According to Fierce Wireless, the deal is structured as a recapitalization. MetroPCS will perform a reverse stock split (1 new share for every two existing shares), and make a $1.5B payment to MetroPCS stockholders. MetroPCS will then buy all of T-Mobile’s stock from T-Mobile’s parent, Deutsche Telekom for 74% of MetroPCS’s common stock. Deutsche Telekom will roll the debt owed to it by T-Mobile into $15B of new senior unsecured notes of the merged company. The result is that T-Metro will have an unsecured credit line of $500M, and $5.5B of additional loan commitments.
T-Mobile and MetroPCS site landlords: Expect tons of collocated/nearby sites to be shuttered. Let’s talk now.
More detail shortly.
Leap/Cricket Wireless…Are you next to go?
Jonathan