The head of Sprint parent company SoftBank is reportedly considering making Charter Communications a direct offer from the Japanese giant after an earlier offer from its U.S. wireless carrier arm was rejected.
According to Bloomberg, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is working on a deal in which SoftBank would acquire Charter. The latter cable company is worth around $101 billion. Sprint has a value of around $30 billion, while parent company SoftBank is valued at around $89 billion.
Bloomberg’s Sunday story comes on the heels of earlier reports detailing merger talks between Sprint and Charter.
Earlier this summer Sprint put its deal talks with fellow U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile on hold to spend two months engaged in “exclusive” discussions with Charter and Comcast. Those chats were initially reported to be centered on coming to an agreement for the cable companies to offer wireless services over Sprint’s network. The Wall Street Journal on Friday, however, indicated Sprint was pursuing a straight merger with Charter rather than just an MVNO arrangement. Follow-up stories noted Charter rebuffed the offer in favor of keeping its current resale agreement with Verizon.
A spokeswoman told Bloomberg “Charter has no interest in acquiring Sprint.”
Charter said it is planning to launch its wireless service on Verizon’s network next year.