Aggressive French telecoms company Iliad has made an offer for T-Mobile US, against a backdrop of speculation that the US number four operator is set to be acquired by domestic rival Sprint, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said.

While the terms of the deal are not clear, it does involve control of the US company, which is currently under the leadership of Deutsche Telekom.

According to the WSJ report, the major sticking point comes in terms of finance: Iliad has a market value of $16 billion, compared with $24.8 billion for T-Mobile US. But the French company is said to be working on financing, seeing a deal as a “one-time opportunity”.

With Sprint backed by Japanese giant SoftBank, it is unlikely to take a counter-offer for T-Mobile lying down. And with its own earlier acquisition of Sprint having come under tough regulatory scrutiny, it certainly knows how to play the game well.

One thing the companies have in common is their aggressive efforts to disrupt the business of more established rivals, such as Orange, SFR and Bouygues for Iliad and AT&T, Verizon and Sprint for T-Mobile.

And an Iliad alliance may also prove more appealing to the US regulators, which may be less keen to see a merger of two existing US players – especially if it means the removal of the market’s most aggressive competitor.

So far, none of the parties involved has made a statement.