RSSVerizon Reportedly Eyeing Sprint Merger
By Ed Oswald | Published December 14, 2004, 5:17 PM
Verizon has reportedly gained the blessing of wireless partner Vodafone to go ahead with plans to propose merger with Sprint, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. A merger between the two companies would result in a wireless giant with over 65 million customers.
Sprint is already in talks with Nextel Communications over a proposed merger, and an announcement of a deal could occur as soon as Wednesday. The $36 billion merger of equals would create a new company called Sprint-Nextel.
But if Verizon does indeed make an offer, it could mean the agreement between Nextel and Sprint would be called off, sources familiar with the situation told the paper.
According to those same sources, Verizon has been eyeing a deal with Sprint for 18 months, and believes that any antitrust issues could be settled in Verizon's favor.
Despite Vodafone backing, however, it was still unclear if Verizon would make a bid for Sprint, the Journal said.
Wouldn't Verizon and Sprint be a better meger since they both use the same kind of phone technology (CDMA 800/1900) as opposed to Nextel which uses it's own iDEN 800 network technology? It seem like combining two different types of networks would be too difficult.
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|Very good question. I'm sure it will be one of the main points if the merger goes through. Question is: which network stays? I'm betting CDMA.
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|Nate, according to my understanding, Nextel has said (privately) it wants to dump iDEN and go with CDMA. But this is hearsay and thus I left it out of the article.
However anyone who merges with Nextel must take into account the HUGE costs of switching the entire network over to whatever party buys it.
Now the question is, if Sprint and Verizon merge, leaving Nextel out... could Nextel come knocking on T-Mobile's door? A point to ponder.
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|Why should I care about your opinions? When I want your opinion I will give it to you.
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|"Why should I care about your opinions?"
the irony ... it burns.
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|The last thing we need is for Sprint and Nextel to merge and then Verizon to merge with them. I would like to have some choice instead of one big company that doesn't care about it's customers because it's the only thing in town.
:::rolling eyes:::
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|the article said one or the other ... not both.
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|Sprint-Nextel... now THERE'S a catchy company name. ;-)
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