Shares of Sprint Corp. sank 7.3% in active midday trade Monday, after a Bloomberg report that Sprint’s largest shareholder SoftBank Group Corp. would accept a buyout by T-Mobile U.S. Inc. at current market prices. Volume topped 22.6 million shares within two hours after the open, already more than double the full-day average of about 10.4 million shares. Bloomberg reported late Friday, citing people familiar with the matter, that while T-Mobile and Sprint haven’t decided on a price for the expected merger, Softbank doesn’t expect to receive much of a premium to current prices. Softbank owned 3.3 billion shares of Sprint, or 82.9% of the shares outstanding. T-Mobile U.S.’s stock slipped 1.3% in midday trade. Over the past three months, Sprint’s stock has lost 1.9% and T-Mobile shares have eased 0.3%, while the S&P 500 has gained 2.3%.
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