The U.S. wireless industry is about to be dominated by three major players. But how did we go from the days of one giant landline monopoly to four competitive cell companies? Illustration: Shaumbe Wright/WSJTOKYO—Possible delays to Sprint Corp.’s planned merger with T-Mobile US Inc. threaten Sprint parent SoftBank Group Corp.’s ambition to invest in the world’s most valuable startups. The merger between Sprint and T-Mobile, announced last year, would lower SoftBank’s large debt by taking taking tens of billions of dollars in Sprint debt off SoftBank’s balance sheet. That would expand Tokyo-based SoftBank’s financing options to fuel an investment machine that already manages a $100 billion investment fund and holds a big stake...

Source: Wall Street Journal April 17, 2019 12:50 UTC