Shares of T-Mobile surged nearly 6.5% to almost $33 a share after French telecom company Illiad made an offer to acquire T-Mobile, a proposal confirmed by both companies. Iliad reportedly offered $15 billion in cash for control of the U.S.’ fourth-largest wireless carrier.Image may be NSFW.
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The deal arrives as T-Mobile’s disruptive “Un-Carrier” strategy seems to be working, based on reported quarterly results. T-Mobile added 1.5 million new customers during the second quarter and passed the 50 million customer milestone. The company also said on Thursday that it has added 7.6 million new net customers overall during the past 15 months and now expects branded postpaid net additions for 2014 to be between 3 million and 3.5 million. The prior guidance was 2.8 million to 3.3 million.
T-Mobile reported quarterly profits of 49 cents per share, up from a first-quarter loss of 19 cents per share, though it says much of that was driven by a non-cash $731 million spectrum license transaction. “We have completely reversed T-Mobile’s trajectory and started a revolution that is changing the rules in wireless,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a statement.
Among its Un-Carrier initiatives since 2013, T-Mobile has eliminated onerous wireless contracts, agreed to reimburse early-termination fees for customers who switch to T-Mobile and most recently announced that folks could test drive an iPhone 5s for a week. The company sold 6.2 million smartphones during the quarter and says tablet sales that were five times greater than sales in the prior quarter helped buoy the increase in mobile broadband lines. T-Mobile indicated that the upside in tablets and wearables provides a lot of opportunity.
