Masayoshi Son, the world’s top tech investor, is betting big on Trump
The world’s largest technology investor is preparing to ramp up his bet on the Trump economy.
Masayoshi Son, the billionaire technology entrepreneur from Japan, promised President Trump late last year that he would create 50,000 new jobs in the United States through a $100 billion technology fund.
Now, Son and his financial advisors are weighing several major possible deals for Sprint, the struggling American wireless operator controlled by Son’s Soft Bank.
Be it a tie-up with T-Mobile US, Sprint’s closest competitor, or a more ambitious marriage with the cable colossus Comcast, a transaction would allow Son to fulfill a long-held ambition to invest aggressively in wireless networks in the United States and enable next-generation mobile technology.
Last month, several executives from Soft Bank spent a day in Washington talking to senior members of Trump’s economic team, according to bankers briefed on these meetings.
The talks and the rush to assess potential deals for Sprint, the country’s fourth-largest mobile operator, highlight how the Trump administration’s push for lighter regulation and lower taxes has been a powerful lure for cash-rich investors the world over.
In their presentations, the Soft Bank executives said that because of a lack of advanced digital investments, the competitiveness of the United States economy was at risk. And the executives made the case, quite strongly, that Son was committed to playing a major role in addressing this issue through a spate of job-creating investments.
The discussions were purposely broad in nature, according to investment bankers who were briefed on the discussions. Until the latest government-sponsored auction for spectrum bands finishes in late April, wireless companies are prohibited, owing to concerns about collusion, from pursuing various tie-ups.
A Sprint hookup with T-Mobile US, Comcast, or any large wireless or cable operator is no slam dunk. For years, federal regulators have opposed such transactions for fear of hurting consumers.
Nevertheless, Soft Bank seems to be seizing the opportunity of the moment — one highlighted by numerous analyst reports arguing for Sprint and T-Mobile US to come together.
Through a spokesman, Soft Bank declined to comment on its plans for Sprint. A move this week by the Soft Bank-controlled One Web, the satellite internet access provider, to merge with Intelsat, the indebted satellite company, is the latest evidence of Son’s ambition, bankers and analysts say. This emphasis on big technology investments as a selling point for the merger rides in part on a wave of hope that the Trump administration will push for a sharp increase in infrastructure investing as a way to kickstart higher levels of United States growth.
Analysts, however, note that in the past six years when Washington frowned upon wireless mergers — first between AT&T and T-Mobile US, and then Sprint and T-Mobile US — consumers benefited from the ruthless price war among the four major carriers.
Moreover, this cutthroat environment has forced the two smaller players, Sprint and T-Mobile US, to become more innovative and efficient.
“The Federal Communications Commission looks very smart for blocking the AT&T T-Mobile deal,” said Philip Cusick, a telecommunications expert with JP Morgan Chase. “Five years ago, Sprint and T-Mobile were irrelevant. Now we are seeing them drive down prices. Why would you want to change that?”
While this four-way price-slashing frenzy has led to lower phone bills, a view is also taking hold that the time has come to focus less on the next great plan for unlimited minutes and more on upgrading America’s digital infrastructure.
That would mean pushing the companies to invest aggressively in the type of fiber technology that will support the next generation of wireless investments before it is too late.