Report : Sprint Owner SoftBank Still Holds Out Hope For T-Mobile Deal

(RTTNews) - SoftBank Group Corp.'s (SFTBF.PK) Masayoshi Son has a 300-year plan, so if combining Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc. takes a few years longer than he hoped, that's OK, Bloomberg reported.

The report indicated that Masayoshi Son still would like to merge the U.S. wireless providers,. SoftBank owns more than 80 percent of Sprint after acquiring the majority stake in 2013, part of Son's famed plan to build a business empire that can endure through the centuries.

Son considered buying T-Mobile in 2014, before abandoning the effort when officials at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department signaled they were against a theoretical merger. There's a key figure who will determine if Son makes another run at T-Mobile: the yet-to-be named new head of the FCC. If MasayoshiSon feels that person is more amenable to a combination to take on market leaders AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., he will probably try again, the report said.