Japan's Softbank in talks to take over US carrier Sprint - report

One of Japan's largest mobile operators, Softbank, is said to be in talks to buy Sprint Nextel Corp, the third-largest cellular provider in the U.S.

Softbank reportedly seeks to purchase two-thirds of Sprint, giving it control of the company, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The details apparently come from two people familiar with the discussions.

Softbank may spend spend more than $19 billion, or 1.5 trillion yen, according to Japan's Nikkei newspaper, which did not say where it learned the price.

A potential deal is seen as an opportunity for Softbank to enter the U.S. market by buying out a compatible carrier. Both Softbank in Japan and Sprint in the U.S. use wireless equipment made by Ericsson AB of Sweden.

Sprint inked a deal with Apple last year to begin offering the iPhone to its customers. Reports indicated the company pledged to purchase 30.5 million total iPhones over a four-year span, a commitment of nearly $20 billion that was characterized as a move that "bet the company" on Apple.

Prior to offering the iPhone, Sprint saw a massive subscriber exodus to market leaders Verizon and AT&T. The company also originally bet on WiMAX technology for its high-speed 4G data, but has since begun the switch to LTE. Apple's latest iPhone 5 offers high-speed data over LTE and is not compatible with WiMAX.

In July, Sprint revealed that the iPhone played a major part in bringing new customers to the carrier. In all, 40 percent of iPhone sales in the June quarter were to new postpaid customers.

Follow AppleInsider on Google News

8 Comments

aizmov

said about 11 years ago

And I still can't get LTE coverage from SoftBank here in Southern Ibaraki. Wow! Good to know where SoftBank's priorities are!

ssquirrel

said about 11 years ago

As a Sprint customer, my only real concern is that if they do get bought out by the Japanese that our new overlords maintain our unlimited data plans :)

tallest skil

said about 11 years ago

Originally Posted by SSquirrel

As a Sprint customer, my only real concern is that if they do get bought out by the Japanese that our new overlords maintain our unlimited data plans :)

Hey, it's Japan. The country's built around ubiquitous data. The very thought of a cap is foreign to them (and good on them for that).

Here are Softbank's plans for people on the archipelago. I seriously doubt they'd offer anything BUT unlimited plans here if this went through.

Tethering to SEVEN GIGS, unlimited if you don't tether. It pains me to say this, but that's a pretty sweet deal. Pains because I shouldn't have to be saying that at all…

ssquirrel

said about 11 years ago

Their pricing is in line with Sprint as well. The 6755 yen figure assumes you have to add those 3 numbers up to reach the total cost of your phone plan.

5460 yen = $69.53
6755 yen = $86.04

SpamSandwich

said about 11 years ago

Seems like a good fit. Perhaps they'll even throw in a bid for T-Mobile! Not mentioned here are the latest bits of speculation that suggest Clearwire may also be part of a Sprint acquisition. At any rate, anything that gooses CLWR's share price is a welcome development in my book.

Latest comparisons