Elliott Investment Management has built a sizable stake in Deutsche Telekom and is pushing the German telecom company to drop plans for a possible full combination with T-Mobile US. The activist investor instead wants Deutsche Telekom to look at other ways to increase shareholder value, including larger share buybacks.
The development adds a new challenge to a deal that was already facing doubts inside T-Mobile US. The exact size of Elliott’s Deutsche Telekom holding has not been disclosed.
What Elliott is asking Deutsche Telekom to do
Elliott is an activist investment firm. That means it buys stakes in companies and then pushes management to make changes that it believes can increase the value of the business for shareholders.
In this case, Elliott has reportedly told Deutsche Telekom that it should move away from a full merger with T-Mobile US. Instead, the investor wants the German company to consider other ways to return money to shareholders.
One of the main ideas is larger share buybacks. A buyback happens when a company uses its money to purchase its own shares. This reduces the number of shares in the market and can increase the value of the remaining shares if the plan works as expected.
The basic disagreement is therefore about how Deutsche Telekom should use its position in T-Mobile US and how it should create more value for investors.
Why the T-Mobile merger was being considered
Deutsche Telekom already owns a majority stake in T-Mobile US. The German company holds nearly 54% of the American wireless operator, making T-Mobile US its biggest source of earnings.
In April 2026, Deutsche Telekom was reported to be considering a much closer combination with T-Mobile US. The idea involved creating a new parent company that would bring the two businesses together while allowing existing shareholders to own shares in the new structure.
If completed, the transaction could become the largest public-company merger ever discussed. It would also create a huge telecommunications company with operations centered on both sides of the Atlantic.
Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges has supported the idea because the United States is the company’s most profitable major market. More than two-thirds of Deutsche Telekom’s adjusted annual earnings come from its U.S. business, according to reporting on the proposed combination.
Why Elliott opposes the deal
Elliott’s argument is centered on shareholder value. The investor appears to believe that Deutsche Telekom can create more value by using its existing assets and returning more cash to shareholders instead of taking on the complexity of a full corporate combination.
Several issues make the merger a major undertaking.
- The transaction would involve two very large companies operating under different markets and regulatory systems.
- T-Mobile US already represents Deutsche Telekom’s most important earnings driver.
- A merger could create a complicated new corporate structure instead of directly returning cash to investors.
- Elliott believes larger share buybacks could be a simpler way to improve shareholder returns.
Elliott’s position also comes at a time when Deutsche Telekom’s shares have underperformed broader European equities over the past year. That gives the activist investor an argument that management should focus on improving the existing business and returning more money to shareholders.
T-Mobile US management has already raised concerns
Elliott’s opposition is not the first problem facing the proposed transaction. T-Mobile US executives were reported in July to have told Deutsche Telekom that they no longer supported the merger idea.
That is important because T-Mobile US is not simply a small subsidiary that can be folded into Deutsche Telekom without major consequences. It is a large publicly traded U.S. company with its own management team and shareholders.
A transaction involving the two companies would also face regulatory and political questions in both Germany and the United States. The proposed structure would need to satisfy shareholders and other important stakeholders before it could move forward.
How big is Elliott’s stake?
The exact size of Elliott’s investment in Deutsche Telekom is not currently known. Reports describe it as sizable, but neither a precise percentage nor a total value has been publicly confirmed.
That detail matters because the size of an activist investor’s stake can affect how much influence it can have. A larger holding can give an investor more financial exposure to the outcome and potentially more influence when talking with management and other shareholders.
German rules require investors to make certain disclosures when their direct shareholding reaches or passes 3%. However, the reported size of Elliott’s overall position could not immediately be determined.
| Detail | Latest information |
|---|---|
| Activist investor | Elliott Investment Management |
| Company targeted | Deutsche Telekom |
| Elliott’s stake | Exact size not disclosed |
| Company at the center of the proposed deal | T-Mobile US |
| Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile US ownership | Nearly 54% |
| Elliott’s position | Opposes a full merger |
| Preferred alternative | Larger share buybacks and other value measures |
| Status of merger | Proposed and uncertain |
What this means for Deutsche Telekom shareholders
The disagreement puts Deutsche Telekom’s management and Elliott on different sides of an important strategic question.
Management has been looking at a closer combination with T-Mobile US, which could create a single large corporate structure around the two businesses. Elliott is arguing for a more direct approach to shareholder returns.
For shareholders, the choice comes down to the possible benefits and risks of each strategy. A merger could offer long-term strategic benefits if the companies can operate effectively as one group. But it could also involve major costs, regulatory challenges and a complicated ownership structure.
A buyback, by comparison, is more straightforward. Deutsche Telekom could use available capital to repurchase shares rather than put that capital toward a large corporate transaction. However, buybacks also have to be judged against the company’s other investment needs and long-term growth plans.
Why the dispute matters for T-Mobile US
T-Mobile US is at the center of the disagreement because it has become such an important part of Deutsche Telekom.
The U.S. wireless market is T-Mobile’s home market and a major source of growth for Deutsche Telekom. The German company therefore has to decide whether it gets more value from keeping the current ownership structure or pursuing a much closer corporate combination.
Elliott’s entry could make that decision harder. Activist investors often try to build support among other shareholders, so the debate may not remain limited to private discussions between Elliott and Deutsche Telekom.
At the same time, the reported opposition from T-Mobile US management means Deutsche Telekom cannot treat the proposed merger as a simple matter of reorganizing a subsidiary. There are now multiple groups with different views about whether the deal makes sense.
What happens next
For now, there is no confirmed merger agreement between Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile US. The reported plan remains uncertain, while Elliott has made clear that it prefers other ways of increasing shareholder value.
The exact size of Elliott’s Deutsche Telekom position could become clearer through future regulatory disclosures. The company may then face greater pressure to explain how it plans to use its large T-Mobile US stake.
The situation could also lead to a wider discussion about whether Deutsche Telekom should prioritize expansion and corporate restructuring or focus more heavily on share buybacks and other direct returns to investors.
The bigger picture
Elliott’s investment changes the balance around the proposed T-Mobile combination. Deutsche Telekom already has a controlling stake in T-Mobile US, so the question is not whether it has access to the U.S. business. The question is whether a full corporate combination would create more value than keeping the current structure.
Elliott clearly believes the answer is no. Its preferred approach is to avoid the merger and use other measures, especially larger share buybacks, to improve shareholder returns.
The proposed deal was already facing resistance from T-Mobile US executives, and Elliott’s arrival adds another powerful voice against it. Until Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile US .