Once upon a time, it seemed as if federal regulators were about to squash the mega-merger between T-Mobile and Sprint.
No more. A federal judge ruled February 11 that the third- and fourth-largest telecom providers can merge in a deal expected to be worth more than $25 billion.
Adata-analysis of both T-Mobile ($TMUS) and Sprint ($S) shows that after a brief period of uncertainty, the companies kept on reducing job postings, which is often a sign that a big deal is near.
In May 2019, when USDOJ lawyers recommended that the T-Mobile/Sprint deal be terminated, we saw both companies rapidly scale up job postings - particularly, for retail roles.
At the time, data reflected that Sprint grew job postings 46% and T-Mobile added 29% more job postings. But, then, both companies saw their job posting tallies rapidly drop - and they never got back to the summer 2019 highs.
So, Tuesday's news wasn't exactly shocking - we see both Sprint and T-Mobile cutting back job postings toward the end of the year, only to see a substantial rise when 2020 began.
But, this may be less of a sign of either company's cold feet regarding the mega-merger, and more applicable to the fact that many Fortune 500 companies tend to strip out job postings toward the end of the year as they ready new spending plans for the fiscal year ahead.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
Further Reading:
- This data tracks the difference between Uber and Lyft
- Snowflake data turns into an avalanche as jumbo-unicorn loads up on cash
- Asana has IPO potential but there's a big legacy player looming over the workforce management space
