Sprint is reportedly nearing a deal to buy T-Mobile for $32 billion. The deal would combine the U.S.'s third and fourth largest telecom companies.

By combining forces, Sprint will try to vamp of its efforts to compete with AT&T and Verizon.

Sprint's offer to T-Mobile would be about $40 per share, that's a 17 percent premium to Wednesday's closing price of $34 for T-Mobile shares. Last year T-Mobile bought provider MetroPCS and has since seen their shares double in price. 

Sprint is now owned by Softbank of Japan. After acquiring Sprint, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son quickly lowered prices of Sprint's all-you-can talk, text and data plans in order to stay competitive with Verizon and AT&T.

T-Mobile is owned in marjority by Germany's Deustche Telekom. The German company owns 67 percent of T-Mobile. 

Sprint and T-Mobile would need to come up with terms on financing as well as the breakup fee or reverse termination fee. Son wants to pay about $1 billion but Deustche Telekom wants closer to $3 billion according to people familiar with the deal.

The deal would still have to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department. 

After approving multiple wirless deals in the past decade, antitrust authorities shot down AT&T's attempt to buy T-Mobile in 2011 for $39 billion. The Justice Department said the U.S. needed four national carriers to keep the companies competitive. It also said that T-Mobile's pricing and strategies have kept the prices of other carriers down.

T-Mobile has been aggressive lately, doing away with termination fees and getting rid of 2-year contracts. They have also added new subscribers at a great pace.

Sprint will probably say these gains in subscribers are just temporary and more and more customers will head over to AT&T or Verizon.

If Sprint's deal is accepted and regulators approve it, they could announce the completion of the deal in late July or August.