Virgin Mobile to buy Helio for $39 million in equity

It's official, MVNO lone survivor Virgin Mobile is picking up the struggling Helio from SK Telecom and Earthlink for a cool $39 million in Virgin Mobile USA stock. They expect the deal to close in Q3 2008, pending regulatory approval. The acquisition comes as no surprise, but it's still sad to see the one true innovator in a mostly doomed MVNO space fall to that pesky little "completely failing to make money" thing. The good news is that it while the Helio brand will be phased out, Virgin Mobile isn't just in this for the 170,000-ish subscribers it'll be picking up. They plan to leverage Helio's technology and content offerings, not to mention the willingness of its customers to pay a few extra bucks for the perks, to build the Virgin Mobile brand into new spaces -- spaces which hopefully prove profitable and Ocean 2-ey.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 27th 2008 12:46PM]

No! This is an MVNO Monopoly! It's not right. They CANT just APPROVE any merger or buyout they want? I call FOUL on the FTC, the FCC and the NAB! Ooops, wrong acronym.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 27th 2008 2:15PM]

Virgin isn't the only MVNO left, it's just one of the most hell known.

There is still such providers as Tracfone, Trumpet, and Jitterbug on the national scene and a bunch of smaller regional outfits.

[ack154 Posted Jun 27th 2008 2:51PM]

As is being posted on the same Engadget story... word is that no... you will not get out of the ETF if you want to cancel.

FAQ: http://www.helio.com/page?p=virgin&

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 30th 2008 6:09AM]

At least it looks like they're not going to lose the Korean stuff.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 30th 2008 8:04PM]

Helio is already getting into Hybrid prepaid and postpaid plans with no credit check or deposit requirements. You can check out some of the new exciting offerings at www.prepaidhelio.com .