Shares of tower operators American Tower (AMT), Crown Castle (CCI), and SBA Communications (SBAC) are on the rise on Tuesday after T-Mobile (TMUS) and Sprint (S) received a favorable decision in court and said the companies are now taking final steps to complete their merger. T-MOBILE, SPRINT APPROVAL: T-Mobile and Sprint announced that after receiving a favorable decision in Federal Court in New York the companies are now taking final steps to complete their merger to create the “New T-Mobile.” In a decision issued this morning, the Court stated that “T-Mobile has redefined itself over the past decade as a maverick that has spurred the two largest players in its industry to make numerous pro-consumer changes. The proposed merger would allow the merged company to continue T-Mobile’s undeniably successful business strategy for the foreseeable future,” the companies noted. John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile, said, “Today was a huge victory for this merger … and now we are FINALLY able to focus on the last steps to get this merger done! (…) We’ve said it all along: the New T-Mobile will be a supercharged Un-carrier that is great for consumers and great for competition. The broad and deep 5G network that only our combined companies will be able to bring to life is going to change wireless … and beyond. Look out Dumb and Dumber and Big Cable – we are coming for you … and you haven’t seen anything yet!” Meanwhile, Sprint Executive Chairman Marcelo Claure said, “Judge Marrero’s decision validates our view that this merger is in the best interests of the U.S. economy and American consumers. Today brings us a big step closer to creating a combined company that will provide nationwide 5G, lower costs, and a high-performing network that will invigorate competition to the benefit of all mobile wireless and in-home broadband consumers. With the support of federal regulators and now this Court, we will focus on quickly completing the few remaining necessary steps to close this transaction.” TOWER OPERATORS TO BENEFIT: Commenting on the news, KeyBanc analyst Brandon Nispel told investors that he views this as a positive outcome for T-Mobile, but believes this merger is negative for Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T), given the resulting stronger competitor. Nispel also believes the tower operators American Tower, Crown Castle, and SBA Communications are beneficiaries as his tower bull case is beginning to come together. While the towers benefited from wireless capital spending of $25B-$30B annually by the big four over the past few years, Nispel thinks the accelerated build and potential for AT&T and Verizon to accelerate their spending could drive total wireless capital spending close to $35B, which he views as positive for towers. Further, he argued that the accelerated build by New T-Mobile will result in strong demand for new leasing activity for tower operators and ultimately could result in accelerating growth for new leasing in the next one to three years, while churn is back-end weighted. Dish (DISH) should also be able to mitigate any potential churn the towers might experience from Sprint given that, as part of the deal to sell Sprint’s prepaid business to Dish, the company has the ability to take over leases from Sprint. PRICE ACTION: In morning trading, shares of American Tower have gained almost 5% to $255.79, Crown Castle’s stock has advanced about 6% to $161.33, and SBA Communications has jumped 7.5% to $284.58.