Sprint nearly acquired MetroPCS, board vetoes deal
MetroPCS. The move would have boosted Sprint’s subscribers by 17 percent while affording it a greater swath of spectrum. Moreover, the move would have set up further changes in the industry. It would have put more pressure on T-Mobile, and it would have put pressure on AT&T to accelerate talks with Cricket; we learned recently that AT&T and Cricket were talking merger, but hadn’t quite reached a serious stage. How close was the MetroPCS deal? Reports indicate that Sprint CEO Dan Hesse had signed off on the deal and had taken it to the board of directors for approval. With just hours remaining until an official announcement, though, Sprint’s board rejected the deal. (Though a later take indicates that the deal was still about a week away from announcement when it fell apart.) Why did they reject it? According to Kevin Roe of Roe Equity Research, it had to do with the 30 percent premium for MetroPCS, which Roe describes as “irrational.” It would have put Sprint even further in debt at a time when it has over $20 billion committed to network upgrades and the iPhone. It’s unlikely we see this revisited in the future, even though reports suggest that Sprint might have been amenable to a similar deal at a different time. Via The Verge and Reuters.]]>
Sprint & MetroPCS Must try again. That would be great for them to merge. I think they try again once they cut Sprint’s debt down.
I’m not sure Sprint will be in a better position any time soon. And, unfortunately, combining Cricket and MetroPCS makes less sense than it did a few years ago.
This deal will kill the prepaid market. It will prove one thing that the business model for the prepaid market is not as profitable as the post paid! Sprint is only interested for the Spectrum!!!
As a new MetroPCS customer and new user to smartphones I find the company acceptable. The cost per month is fine for me. I am only bothered by the bloatware on the phone and the usability to remove the bloatware I don’t need. All in all I like the Samsung Admire and the MertoPCS plan I have for the phone. For now it’s a company I can work with. Formerly a Net10 user (T-moble).