WSJ Reports $5b Investment Into Sprint Rejected

by Jeff Orr, Editor
Mobile Broadband News

The Wall Street Journal is reporting sources stating that Sprint Nextel Corp. rejected an offer by South Korea’s SK Telecom and private equity firm Providence Equity Partners to invest $5 billion in the company and install its former chairman, Tim Donahue, as chief executive.

SK Telecom is one of two Korean operators offering Mobile WiMAX service under the WiBro brand today. Sprint faces shareholder dissatisfaction over their current cellular services and brand rationalization, resulting in questions about how future investments should be focused. Today’s announcement comes on the heels of US carrier Verizon Wireless’s announcement that they will follow in their parents’ footsteps (Verizon and Vodafone) to plan trials using 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) sometime in 2008.

Read more at: WSJ Online