The benefactor wants to save T-Mobile again
DT holds a 53% stake in T-Mobile, but T-Mobile has a bigger market value than DT. The American company also generates most of DT’s profit, making its parent the best-performing telecom company in Europe. Some analysts believe a merger would drag T-Mobile down.However, T-Mobile wasn’t always the runaway success it is today. Timotheus Höttges, DT’s CEO, was CFO in 2000 when the company bought T-Mobile, which was then known as VoiceStream Wireless.
While Höttges was climbing the career ladder, T-Mobile was fast becoming a liability for DT, notorious because of its patchy network coverage. Höttges and then-CEO René Obermann came very close to selling the company to AT&T in 2011, but the Justice Department blocked the deal.The pair pivoted beautifully, using the $4 billion breakup fee from AT&T to rejuvenate T-Mobile, and their efforts paid off. Under Höttges’s watch, T-Mobile went from a cash-burning company to the world’s most valuable wireless provider by market capitalization.
Höttges picked the right horse. Then he gave the horse enough fodder for it to run fast.
Roger Entner, Recon Analytics founder, June 2026
T-Mobile is struggling again
While T-Mobile sits comfortably as the second-largest carrier in the US, its explosive growth is starting to taper off. The company wants to buy more fiber companies to fuel its next chapter, but its current financial structure makes borrowing incredibly expensive. If DT and T-Mobile merge into a single $300 billion titan, it would be easier for them to secure capital. That leverage is crucial if T-Mobile wants to catch up to AT&T and Verizon, both of which have a massive fiber footprint.
The old T-Mobile is never coming back
When Höttges became CEO in 2014, T-Mobile was thriving under CEO John Legere. The two didn’t get along, with Höttges calling Legere’s price cuts unsustainable.
That era of customer-friendly policies is firmly in the rearview mirror. Of course, it wasn’t just discounts that got T-Mobile here. Höttges was instrumental in getting the 2020 Sprint acquisition approved, which helped T-Mobile emerge as a 5G leader. He also poured billions into T-Mobile‘s infrastructure to support 5G internet.
Höttges will retire toward the end of 2028, and the merger could be a glorious end to his career.
Complicated
T-Mobile shareholders would likely not want the merger to go through, as it would expose the American company to “lower-margin foreign businesses.” Securing political backing in the two countries would also be an arduous task.
In the meantime, the two sides will get ample time to think this through.
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