Analyst: Bidding War Brewing For T-Mobile?

T-Mobile US Inc TMUS will soon sign a deal to sell itself, but who the buyer may be is up in the air, an analyst said recently Oppenheimer's Timothy Horan said Dish Network Corp.'s DISH will soon make a $40 a share bid for T-Mobile so that it can put to use the spectrum it's been stockpiling for more than a decade, and recently estimated at $28 billion. "Dish's only other option is to sell its spectrum," Horan said in a research note. Horan sees a natural convergence of cellphone and TV companies, offering the example of AT&T's pending $48.5 billion deal to acquire DirecTV. Without breaking into broadband, Dish's core TV business on a stand-alone basis "will be under a lot of pressure operationally and strategically," Horan said. But it better act quickly. Comcast Corp. CMCSA America Movil AMX and others may be interested and Horan sees a bidding war brewing. "T-Mobile is the king-maker" in the unfolding consolidation, Horan said, adding that regardless of timing, he expects all four wireless carriers to align with paid TV providers within the next year. Down the road, Horan sees Comcast, Sprint S AT&T and Verizon VZ as the most likely survivors. T-Mobil traded recently down 0.7 percent at $30.26 a share. -