{"id":41799,"date":"2017-10-02T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T14:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.portada-online.com\/?p=41799"},"modified":"2017-10-05T11:35:30","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T15:35:30","slug":"how-a-t-mobile-sprint-merger-could-affect-battle-for-hispanic-mobile-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portada-online.com\/latest-news\/how-a-t-mobile-sprint-merger-could-affect-battle-for-hispanic-mobile-market\/","title":{"rendered":"How A T-Mobile-Sprint Merger Could Affect the Battle for the Hispanic Mobile Market"},"content":{"rendered":"
What:<\/strong> Sprint\u00a0<\/strong>and T-Mobile<\/strong> continue to drop hints that they will indeed merge, with the latest rumors asserting that T-Mobile majority owner Deutsche Telekom<\/strong> would be the primary owner of the new company, with Sprint\u2019s SoftBank Group Corp<\/strong> controlling 40 to 50 percent. Rumors about a possible merger between third-largest US wireless carrier T-Mobile<\/strong> and fourth-largest Sprint<\/strong> have intensified as unnamed sources come out to drop hints about how the deal would look.<\/p>\n On Friday, Reuters cited unnamed sources that claimed that while T-Mobile majority owner Deutsche Telekom<\/strong> would be the primary owner of the new company, SoftBank Group Corp<\/strong>, which controls Sprint, would come out with 40 to 50 percent ownership.<\/p>\n A brand shaped by its focus on innovation and offering new kinds of value through mobile technology, T-Mobile has been targeted for merger deals by both Verizon<\/strong> and AT&T<\/strong>, the first and second-largest carriers in the country, in the past. With its focus on offering flexible, low-cost plans that appeal to Hispanics, Sprint could offer T-Mobile a deeper reach into this key growth market while the new company chips away<\/a> at Verizon’s pricing advantage.<\/p>\n The numbers don’t lie: According to Nielsen<\/strong>, there are 56 million Hispanics (and counting) in the United States, and 72% of them own a smartphone (10 percent higher than the national average).<\/p>\n And so it is no surprise that both T-Mobile and Sprint have made Hispanic marketing a priority in their own way. According to Ad Age,<\/strong>\u00a0as recently as 2013, T-Mobile ranked seventh among the top 10 advertisers to Hispanics, with $98.7 million spent on Hispanic marketing alone in 2013 compared to Sprint, which came in at #18 on the list spending $68.6 million.<\/p>\n
\nWhy It Matters:<\/strong> Aside from reshaping the mobile landscape through combining two of its largest players, how would the merger affect major (and minor) carriers’ ongoing battle for the loyalty of Hispanic consumers?<\/p>\nFor Mobile Carriers, Hispanics Are Key to Growth<\/h2>\n