Charter says it doesn’t want to merge with Sprint

Charter Communications says it has “no interest” in merging with Sprint, after the Wall Street Journal reported that Sprint had proposed a deal. The proposed merger would have combined Sprint and Charter into a new publicly traded entity controlled by SoftBank, which currently controls a majority stake in Sprint.

If it had come to fruition, the deal may have given Sprint more leverage in its ongoing merger discussions with T-Mobile. In an email to WSJ, however, Charter spokesman Alex Dudley said that Charter would hang onto its current mobile virtual network operator deal with Sprint rival Verizon.

“We understand why a deal is attractive for SoftBank, but Charter has no interest in acquiring Sprint. We have a very good MVNO relationship with Verizon and intend to launch cable customers next year,” Dudley wrote. (Disclosure: Verizon owns Oath, which in turn owns TechCrunch).

As one of the largest cable companies in the U.S., Charter is in demand as an acquisition target by telecom companies. Earlier this year it also reportedly turned down an offer from Verizon. TechCrunch has contacted Charter and Sprint for comment.

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