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The Wall Street Journal: Sprint, T-Mobile tweak merger terms to give Deutsche Telekom bigger stake

Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc. have agreed on new terms for their merger, as the wireless carriers race to close the deal after overcoming a federal court challenge. Read More...

Sprint Corp. S, -0.11%   and T-Mobile US Inc. TMUS, -0.99%   have agreed on new terms for their merger, as the wireless carriers race to close the deal after overcoming a federal court challenge.

The parties will improve the exchange ratio in the all-stock deal for T-Mobile’s parent, Deutsche Telekom AG DTE, +0.73%  , the companies said in a written statement confirming an earlier Wall Street Journal report.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero last week allowed the deal to proceed by rejecting arguments from a group of state attorneys general seeking to block it as anticompetitive. T-Mobile said after the court ruling that it was working to close the transaction as soon as April 1.

Originally, 9.75 Sprint shares were to be exchanged for each T-Mobile share. Under the revised deal, SoftBank Group Corp., which owns more than 80% of Sprint’s common stock, will exchange the equivalent of 11 of its shares for each T-Mobile share. Sprint’s other shareholders will continue to get the original exchange ratio.

Deutsche Telekom is to own about 43% of the combined company now, up from just below 42% when the deal was first announced nearly two years ago, the companies said. SoftBank’s percentage will drop to approximately 24% from 27%. The remaining 33% is to be held by the public, up from 31%.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

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