The Department of Justice gave its blessing more than six months ago, the Federal Communications Commission followed suit with a predictable party-line vote in October, and despite some pretty strong arguments made by 14 state AGs and the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, a federal judge also signed off on the combination of T-Mobile and Sprint earlier this week after considering Magenta’s “maverick” reputation, the Now Network’s faltering business, and perhaps most importantly, Dish’s industry ambitions.

Further delays are definitely on the table

No words on numbers or actual dates

It’s hard to quantify how valuable Sprint might prove to be for T-Mobile in the long run, but right now, the brand, its customer base, and spectrum are objectively worth much less than two years ago. Specifically, FT reports Sprint shares are trading at a 12 percent discount compared to the “implied value” of the mega deal, vastly improving from an all-time low discount of 45 percent prior to Judge Marrero’s somewhat controversial verdict while still leaving plenty of room for revision.

Interestingly, analysts consider the deal was “overly generous from the beginning” on T-Mobile’s part, so it remains to be seen if the “Un-carrier’s” Germany-based owners will exhibit a similar degree of generosity in their bid to finalize the merger with minimal delay. In other words, the industry expectations are that the deal will close at an ever so slightly lower price than the one agreed on in 2018, thus potentially satisfying both parties.

Of course, we’ll have to wait until the new talks are concluded (or at least confirmed) to get an estimate on the revised merger price and closing date. For the time being, analysts are wary of making predictions of that sort.