After years of flirting, Sprint and T-Mobile have made it official—announcing over the weekend that they have reached a deal to become one company. The deal—if it passes regulatory muster—would create a company with a combined 100 million subscribers and would be positioned to challenge Verizon and AT&T for wireless dominance – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

Unsurprisingly, the implications of the deal spread far beyond just cell phones. Take, for example, the outsized role of Masayoshi Son and SoftBank in the deal (as 80% owner of Sprint) and the increased American presence a successful merger would mean for Son – NYTimes

While we’re talking mergers, UK grocer Sainsbury has agreed to buy Walmart’s Asda unit in a $10 billion deal. Walmart will retain roughly 40% control (share-wise, at least) of the new company – Bloomberg and WSJ and MarketWatch

NY state judge Barry Ostrager has halted the planned $6.1 billion Fuji/Xerox deal by granting a series of motions for preliminary injunction and finding that Xerox CEO Jeff Jacobson was “conflicted and acted in his own self interest during negotiations while trying to save his own job” – Law360

Amazon’s HQ2 destination is still officially a mystery, but no matter where it lands, Bezos and crew are likely to apply many of the hard lessons learned from their Seattle home base – NYTimes

We’ll be keeping a careful eye on talks between the Treasury Secretary and Chinese officials this week as a potential trade war between the two economic powerhouses still looms large. You can bet markets will be watching, too – WSJ

Let’s join Bloomberg in checking in on how Brexit’s coming along, shall we?  I believe the proper term in the UK is “skip bin fire” – Bloomberg

A Times long-read on how a “small revolt” led by a group of Nike’s women led to the departure of a series of high-ranking male executives who had fostered a “toxic” workplace environment rife with sexual harassment and gender discrimination – NYTimes

Australia largely dodged the worst of the global financial crisis ten years ago (and, thus, the regulatory action that followed). Which means that the comeuppance its largest banks are getting these days in  Melbourne courthouse has been a long time coming – Bloomberg

Pimco’s real-estate division is doing some return hunting, and it is willing to follow the money into riskier mezzanine loans. The move, along with an interest in privately held debt, signals Pimco’s growing comfort with so-called “alternative investments” – WSJ

The Fed’s open markets committee meets again this week, and though it’s expected to hold rates steady, hints of climbing “price and wage pressures” may force the Fed to address the issue of inflation exceeding the 2% goal—a marked change after years of worrying about just trying to get close to it – WSJ and Bloomberg

Notably missing from Microsoft’s fiscal Q3 report unveiled last week? Anything more than an opaque passing reference to a 24% gain in its Xbox business due to “record levels of engagement driven by a third-party title.” C’mon Redmond—call it by its name: FORTNITE – WSJ