The U.S. wireless arm of German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile USA, completed its merger with fellow wireless carrier MetroPCS Communications this morning.
The combined company will be called "T-Mobile US" and will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange today as "TMUS." (Executives will be on hand to ring the bell.)
The new company bills itself as "America's un-carrier," a nod to its strategic move to pursue the pre-paid, no-contract market rather than the lucrative post-paid, contracted market dominated by larger U.S. carriers Verizon, AT&T and Sprint.
Six points about the new company:
Market analysts expect the new company to be sluggish through 2013 as it reconfigures itself, with growth likely in 2014 and 2015. Some have suggested that the company will make a bid for No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier Sprint, which is finding itself squeezed between Verizon and AT&T at the top and now the combined T-Mobile at the bottom.
The companies agreed to merge a week ago. Under the terms of the agreement, MetroPCS effected a 1 for 2 reverse stock split, made a cash payment of $1.5 billion to its stockholders (or approximately $4.05 per share prior to the reverse stock split), and acquired all of T-Mobile's capital stock from Deutsche Telekom in exchange for about 74 percent of MetroPCS' common stock.