We'd take this with half a tablespoon of salt for now, but
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sprint-Nextel Corp. is "seriously considering spinning off or selling its
ailing Nextel unit." That's according to undisclosed people "familiar with the situation," though Sprint did decline to comment on whether it actually was considering a sale of Nextel. Also of note, Cyren Call is reportedly attempting to "assemble a consortium of investors to acquire Nextel as part of its plans to create a nationwide wireless network for public safety communications," and while it can't be confirmed, we are hearing that Sprint is "contemplating other possible buyers such as private equity firms." Still, these same sources made clear that "no deal was imminent and that Sprint was preoccupied for the moment with
other matters." It's no secret that the firm would be way more attractive to suitors (read:
Deutsche Telekom) if the flagging Nextel division was detached from the deal, but we guess we'll have to wait and see how it all plays out. [Warning: read link requires subscription]
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in, image courtesy of
Flickr]
posted May 5th 2008 4:00PM
i've been saying for a while its a matter of time before sprint and or nextel either goes under or is sold. i do seriously believe that sprint will be sold, and nextel will be sold as well, though to a different party. cant wait.
Good for Sprint. They don't need Nextel.
--James
So these new Qchat phones that can work w/ the iDen DC was all for nothing? More money down the drain. Ouch!!
Sprint was once the leader. It is truly kind of sad to see a company fall so far, so fast. It has been ailing since purchasing Nextel, but it seems it really began a harsh tumble last summer and has never recovered. Not to mention it has seemingly never been able to truly merge the 2 together into one company. It's kind of been like "You want a cellphone? Here is our Sprint part of our store. Oh - you want radio, well come over and see the Nextel side of the store."
Are recent events the beginning of the end for Sprint? Or will they bring a rejuvenation of the company? I fear it's the former and not the latter.
This is all purely speculation. They could axe the Nextel Direct Connect service and exclusively focus on Q-chat (but as of right now, Rev A isn't everywhere that regular EVDO is), so it'll be somewhat spotty in terms of Q-chat service.
--James
Way to go Sprint.
Totally cool.
I'll give them 12 dollars and a burnt Village People cd (for the construction workers) for Nextel...Take it or leave it.
Excuse my ignorance here. But, are you not supposed to have a plan to functionally merge a new company and / or benefit from the economies of scale from the merger? I wonder how giant the golden parachutes for the architects of this disaster will be, assuming this is more than just a rumor.
It's about time! I am a Sprint customer (as of August 2007) and have had it with the "improvements" Sprint has made to better serve us. They don't have any idea what they are doing- their customer service is horrible. Trying to combine the two companies as they have was just a bad idea to start with.