This is a more complicated deal than the one AT&T did with Time Warner. The owner of T Mobile is Deutsche Telecom and the owner of Sprint is SoftBank. In theory is is a Japanese company buying a German company to operate in the US as one, but SoftBank has a lot of Chinese holdings like Tencent so the integration of that conglomerate is a little more tricky.
The Chinese do a lot of this kind of dealing, using second-tier companies to get a foot in the door under a larger roof like SoftBank. They pretty much ignore the owner after that, though they send all the right people to Board meetings and corporate picnics. Remember Alipay for that lesson. This one bears looking into in a little more detail. It is not just about control, which SoftBank has with 66% of Sprint, but it about influence - that third part of foreign ownership, control and influence. Conglomerates are a world of their own and they have many governments trying to stick fingers in their business. But where that becomes important is when China has to pass on some business deals because they have ownership of companies by state-owned institutions. Yes, its complicated, and China wants us to think their companies are just like the rest of businesses in the world. We know they aren’t.
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