Sprint names Michel Combes CEO
Sprint says Michel Combes will take on the CEO job by the end of May at the latest. Combes joined Sprint just four months ago as CFO, replacing
Tarek Robbiati
after Sprint's merger talks with T-Mobile collapsed. Now the two carriers and their parent companies have sealed a deal, marking the second time Combes has helped execute a major telecom merger.
Combes was CEO of Alcatel-Lucent when the French company agreed to be bought by Nokia. More recently, Combes was CEO of cable operator Altice, which is now a Sprint partner.
Marcelo Claure, Sprint's current CEO, will become CEO of SoftBank Group International, and will work with SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son to manage the firm's global portfolio of companies. In addition, Claure will be responsible for leading global governmental affairs, and he said yesterday that his top priorities will be
overseeing the integration of Sprint and T-Mobile, and
working to secure regulatory approval for the planned merger. Claure,
who tried to help Hillary Clinton defeat Trump
, will lobby for regulatory approval along with T-Mobile CEO John Legere, who engaged in a
war of words
with Trump during the presidential campaign.
President Trump's history with Legere and Claure notwithstanding, his administration appears ready to give the merger a full and fair examination in the months ahead. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross
called the merger "interesting"
on CNBC
, and said it could move AT&T and Verizon along faster on 5G. Meanwhile the Justice Department has
asked the FCC
for updates on number portability and Number Resource Utilization and Forecast. The Justice Department says it needs these updates as it begins its investigation of the proposed merger.
Atlanta's CitySwitch is AT&T's newest tower partner, and plans to help the carrier support 5G and FirstNet. The company also expects to see AT&T move radio equipment from existing towers onto its new towers.
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