T-Mobile is once again the subject of merger talks, with The Wall Street Journal reporting Wednesday night that the Bellevue-based wireless carrier is in the formative stages of considering a tie-up with Dish Network Corp.
According to the report, citing people familiar with the deal, Dish CEO Charlie Ergen would serve as chairman of the combined company, while T-Mobile CEO John Legere would serve as CEO.
The rumors of a Dish and T-Mobile merger have appeared before, with Legere saying in April that a deal “makes some sense.”
“It makes some sense from a standpoint of integrating that spectrum and capability and deploying it on our network, and then looking at how you merge some of the content distribution and mobile devices and their base of customers as well. So yeah, take a look,” Legere said.
A planned merger between T-Mobile and Sprint fell apart in the face of regulatory opposition last year.
T-Mobile remains the fourth largest wireless carrier with 56.8 million customers at the end of the first quarter.
The Journal reports that any merger would be large, given that T-Mobile is valued at $31 billion and Dish is valued at $33 billion.
More from the WSJ here.
Previously on GeekWire: A wireless love connection? T-Mobile and Dish Network could be a perfect match — or not
