In 2020, T-Mobile USA acquired Sprint in a $26 billion merger.
The transaction was announced in April 2018 as an all-stock deal between two major U.S. wireless carriers. Regulators reviewed the merger for nearly two years because combining Sprint and T-Mobile would reduce the number of nationwide carriers from four to three.
The U.S. Department of Justice approved the deal after T-Mobile and Sprint agreed to sell Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and Sprint’s prepaid business to Dish Network for $1.4 billion. The merger formally closed on April 1, 2020, with T-Mobile as the surviving brand.
The wording can cause confusion because this was legally structured as a merger rather than a simple cash purchase. Sprint’s brand was discontinued later in 2020, while Dish used the divested assets to build a new wireless competitor.