It was $5$:$30$ p$.$m$.$ one evening in mid$-$December $2020,$ and David Den Herder was alone

in his office. Den Herder's partner at Marceco Ltd$.,$ Jamal Aqel, had already left for the

day. The conversation he just had with Aqel was still playing in Den Herder's mind.

Den Herder and Aqel, equal partners of Marceco Ltd$.,$ a national U$.$S$.$ prepaid wireless

distributor of Boost Mobile and a Sprint $($now T$-$Mobile$)$ retailer, headquartered in

Grand Rapids, Michigan needed to make a tough decision.

When the T$-$Mobile$-$Sprint merger was approved in February of $2020,$ the United

States Department of Justice $($DOJ$)$ required the divestiture of Boost Mobile $($formerly

owned by Sprint$)$ to DISH, a satellite TV network, and a new entrant into the wireless

telecommunications industry. This resulted in Marceco $-25-$year$-$old American

company, with revenues of approximately US $$710$ million by $2019-$ having contracts

containing exclusivity clauses with two competing telecommunications carriers: T$-$

Mobile and DISH. After Den Herder and Aqel had attempted multiple times to exempt

Marceco from those clauses, T$-$Mobile made it clear that they had to make a decision:

Marceco needed to divest either the business$-$to$-$consumer $($B$2$C$)$ division representing

T$-$Mobile, or the business$-$to$-$business $($B$2$B$)$ division representing Boost Mobile,

which was owned by DISH after the merger.

Marceco's B$2$C division had evolved since its beginnings, was highly developed

and was ready to expand its market share. Despite the merger's headwinds, it had

increased the number of activations; ${?}^1$ moreover, T$-$Mobile was promising to build the

most robust $5$ G network nationwide, capable of competing aggressively against the

other two largest carriers, Verizon, and AT&T$.$

Marceco's B$2$B division had a long history of growth ranging from US $$12$ million

in revenues in $2004$ to approximately US $$700$ million in $2019,$ but partnering with

DISH, a new entrant in the industry, was riskier. Marceco was among Boost Mobile's

largest Direct Distribution Partners $($DDPs$)$ in the United States and had significant

experience with acquisitions. The division had grown exponentially year after year and