Add Dish to the list of companies considering T-Mobile acquisition

Satellite television company Dish is considering making a bid for T-Mobile in 2014, expanding its footprint beyond just TV, reports Reuters.

Dish is the second company rumored to be making an acquisition bid for T-Mobile US. Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that Sprint plans to make a bid for T-Mobile as well.

Dish lost an opportunity to acquire the nation's third-largest wireless company, Sprint, earlier this year when Japanese telecom giant Softbank bought a controlling interest, and has apparently been looking at T-Mobile. T-Mobile is a distant fourth compared to Sprint and larger rivals AT&T and Verizon.

Reuters says that Charlie Ergan, Dish's chairman, hopes to put the billions of dollars in wireless spectrum his company has amassed in the past few years to more use. Dish has been talking with Deutsche Telekom AG, T-Mobile US's majority owner, about the possibility of a buyout. None of the parties involved would comment for Reuters' article.

T-Mobile's had a banner year. In April it began to carry the iPhone. Paired with its "Uncarrier" plan, decoupling cell phone subsidies and streamlining rate plans, expanding its 4G LTE footprint, the company's added more than a million subscribers this year. The company is resurgent following AT&T's failed 2011 acquisition attempt.

One thing's for sure: T-Mobile is in a few different investors' crosshairs as a potential acquisition target. Depending on how the Feds react, 2014 could look very different for cell phone customers in the US.

Does the idea of Dish or Sprint buying T-Mobile please you or fill you with dread? Should T-Mobile US try to forge ahead alone? Tell me what you think in the comments.

Source: Reuters