Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile announced on Wednesday that T-Mobile USA’s merger with MetroPCS Communications is complete, creating a network with roughly 43 million subscribers across the United States. The union makes Apple’s iPhone available to an additional 9 million customers.
The last obstacles to creating the new entity — known as T-Mobile US and trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TMUS — were cleared in late April, when MetroPCS’ shareholders approved the merger following an improved offer from Deutsche Telekom. The deal saw MetroPCS effecting a 1 for 2 reverse stock split and paying its shareholders $1.5 billion, or roughly $4.05 per share.
T-Mobile is the #4 carrier in the U.S. Based on its 2012 financial report, the company has about $24.8 billion in revenues and $2.7 billion in free cash flow.
T-Mobile’s president and CEO, John Legere, will head the new company, while MetroPCS’ vice chairman and CFO, J. Braxton Carter, will serve as CFO.
The combined company will continue to operate under separate branding for the time being, with MetroPCS customers being gradually brought under the T-Mobile magenta umbrella. While the transition is taking place, MetroPCS’ CDMA network spectrum will be repurposed for T-Mobile’s LTE network. The process is expected to be completed by 2015.
The marriage marks the end of a months-long process that saw MetoPCS’ board of directors approving the merger in October.
MetroPCS customers previously did not have access to the iPhone.
UPDATE (05/01/13) – T-Mobile CEO John Legere tells AllThingsD that the iPhone won’t be immediately coming to MetroPCS
“The answer to that is not ‘No,’” Legere said, but added, “It’s not imminent; I think that’s safe to say.”
Two main factors will affect the timing of when the iPhone will come to MetroPCS. One is how T-Mobile decides it wants to position the two brands and manage its marketing.
“It’s also something that involves Apple,” Legere said, but added that “we’ve started those dialogues with our partners.”
