SoftBank just made $12 billion after Sprint's stock rocketed 70%

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• SoftBank made about $12 billion after Sprint's stock price rocketed more than 70% on Tuesday.
• The Japanese conglomerate is Sprint's parent, owning nearly 85% of the wireless carrier's shares.
• The stock surge boosted the value of SoftBank's holding from about $17 billion to $29 billion.
• Sprint's shares shot up after a federal judge approved its mega-merger with T-Mobile.
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SoftBank made about $12 billion this morning, courtesy of Sprint's surging stock price.

The Japanese conglomerate owns nearly 85% of Sprint's shares, which rocketed more than 70% on Tuesday after a federal judge approved the carrier's $26 billion mega-merger with T-Mobile. As a result, SoftBank's roughly 3.4 billion Sprint shares soared in value from about $17 billion to $29 billion.

Sprint's shares almost halved in the six months to the end of January, as investors doubted it could compete with industry titans AT&T and Verizon, and feared regulators wouldn't allow it to merge with T-Mobile due to competition concerns.

Finally, a return

The sudden stock rally means SoftBank may have finally made a return on its investment. It shelled out just over $20 billion for about 70% of Sprint in 2012, then gradually increased its stake to almost 85% - the threshold at which it would have to buy the company.

SoftBank will welcome the good news after a challenging few months. Its reputation and balance sheet have taken a battering from the collapse of WeWork's IPO and challenges at Uber, DoorDash, and other startups it has invested in.

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