Dish Network nears $6 billion deal for T-Mobile, Sprint assets including Boost Mobile brand

David McLaughlin, Scott Moritz, and Nabila Ahmed for Bloomberg:

Dish Network Corp. is in talks to pay at least $6 billion for assets that T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. are unloading to win regulatory approval for their merger, according to people familiar with the matter.
Dish could announce a deal as soon as this week for assets including wireless spectrum and Sprint’s Boost Mobile brand, said the people… The potential divestitures are aimed at appeasing the Justice Department, which wants T-Mobile and Sprint to sell enough assets to ensure that the U.S. maintains at least four viable wireless players.
Dish, co-founded by billionaire Charlie Ergen, had been on a shortlist of bidders for T-Mobile and Sprint assets favored by the Justice Department, people familiar with the matter said this month. Charter Communications Inc. and Altice USA Inc. were also on the list.

MacDailyNews Take: For the sake of competition, we’d rather have three big players versus the current situation of two big and two lesser scrappy underdogs.