Sprint To Replace CEO, Drop Bid For T-Mobile Amid Tough Regulatory Climate

Sprint will announce tomorrow its plans to drop its bid to buy T-Mobile amid a hostile regulatory climate and financing difficulties, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. In addition to walking away from its merger efforts, Sprint will reportedly appoint a new CEO tomorrow, according to Bloomberg. The two events are presumably linked.

The prospect of lowering the number of major mobile carriers in the United States from four to three proved unpopular among U.S. regulatory bodies. According to the Journal, Sprint believes it has made sufficient network improvements to pursue an independent course without T-Mobile’s customers and infrastructure.

The Sprint decision comes amid a number of other proposed mergers, including a proposed Comcast Time Warner Cable combination that has some fretting about consolidation leading to lessened competition. Sprint’s decision to pull its efforts could be a bellwether of sorts for the other proposed mega mergers.

In its most recent quarter, Sprint lost 181,000 net subscribers; it’s the nation’s third-largest mobile carrier.

TechCrunch has reached out to both companies for comment, and will update this post if and when we hear back.