Verizon doesn’t want to buy Sprint, despite this week’s merger between AT&T and T-Mobile.
Verizon CEO Daniel Mead told Reuters:
“We’re not interested in Sprint. We don’t need them.”
The $39 billion AT&T-Mobile deal, announced on Sunday but expected to take months to complete, puts the newly combined company at the the top of the US market, ousting Verizon from that position.
One obvious next step would be for Verizon to go shopping itself, to bolster its position and fight back against AT&T’s expansion-by-acquisition. But Mead’s statement suggests another tactic.
Of course, there’s still time for regulators to halt the AT&T/T-Mobile deal. There’s still plenty to play for.
