Dish Buys Prepaid Carrier Boost Mobile for $1.4 Billion
upstart writes in with an IRC submission:
Dish buys prepaid carrier Boost Mobile for $1.4 billion:
After nearly a decade of trying to break into the wireless market, Dish just became the newest national wireless carrier. Today, Dish announced the $1.4 billion acquisition of Boost Mobile. With this purchase, Dish secures its place in the retail wireless market and will serve more than nine million customers.
The deal is the result of T-Mobile's Sprint merger. In order to gain FCC approval and quell fears that the merger would hurt competition, T-Mobile and Sprint agreed to several demands, including divesting Boost Mobile, one of Sprint's prepaid brands. Rumors circulated last year that Dish would buy Boost for $6 billion. Obviously, the final price is nowhere near that amount.
"This marks an important milestone in DISH's evolution as a connectivity company," Dish CEO and president Erik Carlson said in a statement. "It positions us well as we continue to build out the first virtualized, standalone 5G network in America."
Also at Ars Technica and cnet.
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