Dish to buy $5 billion in wireless assets, clearing path to T-Mobile, Sprint merger: report

The last hurdle to federal approval of a mega-merger between T-Mobile US and Sprint Corp. may have been cleared Tuesday, as Bloomberg News reported Dish Network Corp. has agreed to acquire $5 billion in wireless assets from the companies. That divesture could allay antritrust concerns by the Justice Department, which Bloomberg reported could sign off on the deal as soon as Thursday. Under the deal, which includes wireless spectrum assets, Dish will be able to provide T-Mobile wireless service for seven years under the Dish brand. That would allow Dish to operate as a fourth nationwide mobile carrier, which the Justice Department had pushed for. The report was published after Wall Street's extended trading had closed, but shares of SoftBank Group , which owns Sprint, jumped 2% in Tokyo trading.

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