Sprint acquires Virgin Mobile USA for a cool $483m

Remember Virgin Mobile? Sure you do -- not long ago the last-man-standing MVNO snapped up Helio, and seemed ready to take its place as one of the few boutique prepaid operations still... er, operating. Well that appears to be all but done and done, as Sprint has just announced a "definitive agreement" to purchase the company for $483 million worth of sweet, succulent stock (which looks to be right about what it was valued at to begin with). It looks like Sprint will pair the acquisition with its Boost Mobile brand, which till now was in direct competition with VM. It's not quite rival city, however, Virgin Mobile USA was launched as a joint venture with Sprint, and the MVNO glides on Dan Hesse's network as it is. Still, it does seem to be another indicator that the days of the MVNO are certainly on the wane, though Sprint now looks to own the space -- what little there is.

[RileyFreeman Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:16AM]

and bell bought virgin mobile canada. bell and sprint have always seemed to do a lot of things similar. if canadas government ever gets their head out their ass and opens foreign ownership laws. I see sprint and bell merging.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:18PM]

good point...I can't wait to be accidentally/on purpose put into a three year contract after calling up customer service to ask a simple question... I can't wait!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 11:27PM]

What the heck is gonna happen to Helio then?

[dramanebila80 Posted Jul 28th 2009 7:35PM]

Wow, Only in America do we have companies paying "beaucoup" dollars to get peoples who are already on their network. This transaction in my books is one of the most expensive just to get rid of the middle man.
Go! Sprint, long live "SERO" and "Everything Data"

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 11:46PM]

What part does SK Telecom play in this? When Virgin Mobile bought out Helio, SK Telecom was put on the board. Since the rumor back when of a possible SK buyout of Sprint, I'd love to see some influence from them, maybe see some great handsets come to Sprint. But more than likely that won't happen.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 5:38PM]

I REALLY hope that the entire buyout will somehow ultimately result in Sprint commissioning Sanyo or Kyocera to manufacture some kinda webOS-powered super keitai for Helio or something...

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 6th 2009 12:22PM]

No, that would require a buyout by KDDI instead. SKT buying out Sprint would mean that we'd be getting cooler Pantech phones than AT&T gets and better Samsung/LGs than Verizon.

[SeanR Posted Jul 29th 2009 2:35AM]

I'm not understanding the point of this... Sprint seems confused as to what exactly they want to do

[gadgeek Posted Jul 29th 2009 8:03AM]

From a business standpoint it makes a lot of sense. More control, increase name branding, and exposure. With Sprint off-loading the network day-to-day ops to Ericsson, it's a good move to strengthen the customer base with acquisitions that that fit in seamlessly. Nice work Dan... should have grabbed a block of Sprint shares during the buck range low period.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 29th 2009 3:28PM]

So I left sprint to go to helio. Virgin Mobile Bought Helio. Sprint bought Virgin Mobile. Oh god what have I gotten myself into. Hopefully I will get some new phones to play with.