Verizon buying Sprint

As taken out of USAToday

Verizon gets Vodafone OK for Sprint bid
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications has gained the backing of
partner Vodafone Group to bid for Sprint in a move that could thwart
Sprint's potential $35 billion bid for Nextel Communications, the Wall
Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Officials at Verizon (VZ), which jointly owns Verizon Wireless with
Britain's Vodafone (VOD), have been talking about a possible takeover in the
past few days after studying a potential deal for 18 months, people familiar
with the situation told the newspaper, adding it is unclear if Verizon will
indeed make a bid.

A Verizon bid for Sprint (FON) could still be days or weeks away, the
Journal said, because Verizon and Vodafone need to agree on issues such as
how much to bid and how to deal with Sprint's land-line and long-distance
phone operations.

Sprint and Nextel (NXTL) have held talks over the past year about merging,
renewing negotiations in recent days to create a wireless giant with about
39 million customers to rival industry leaders Cingular Wireless and Verizon
Wireless.

The Journal reported that Sprint's board met on Monday afternoon to discuss
the proposed deal with Nextel, while Nextel's board is also considering the
prospective deal, noting that the merger is scheduled to be announced later
on Tuesday in New York.

---

› See More: Verizon buying Sprint

Rod Golding <[email protected]> wrote:
> As taken out of USAToday
>
> Verizon gets Vodafone OK for Sprint bid
> NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications has gained the backing of
<snip>

This was completely expected. It was even mentioned as likely in the
article that I read in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Sunday.

To me, this is a better fit, except for one thing. I expect that there
would be a significant overlap in spectrum that the FCC would like
require a sell-off. Now, that could cause a congestion issues that
might make both sets of customers angry in some areas. At least
Cingular and AT&T mostly had the same frequencies and thus didn't have
as large of a problem as Verizon and Sprint will have.

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
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Thomas T. Veldhouse wrote:
> Rod Golding <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>As taken out of USAToday
>>
>>Verizon gets Vodafone OK for Sprint bid
>>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications has gained the backing of
>
> <snip>
>
> This was completely expected. It was even mentioned as likely in the
> article that I read in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Sunday.


Well, turns out it was a false rumor:

http://tinyurl.com/4ujfq

And a moot point anyway, as Sprint/Nextel is now official.


--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

Isaiah Beard <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Well, turns out it was a false rumor:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4ujfq
>
> And a moot point anyway, as Sprint/Nextel is now official.
>

True. It is possible that Verizon might surprise and bid, and that
could throw a large cog into it all.

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
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In article <41c09994$0$187
[email protected]>, Thomas T.=20
[email protected] says...
> True. It is possible that Verizon might surprise and bid, and that
> could throw a large cog into it all.
>=20

I actually think this would be to Verizon's *detriment*. =20
There's too many legal requirements on *both* the landline=20
and the wireless side. I suspect it would take more than a=20
year to complete (and thus even longer to see any return on=20
it, if any).

--=20
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
-+-
**A thing moderately good
is not so good as it ought to be.
Moderation in temper is always a virtue,
but moderation in principle is always a vice.**
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On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 16:52:39 GMT, O/Siris <0sīrīs@sprīntpcs.cōm>
wrote:

>[email protected] says...
>> True. It is possible that Verizon might surprise and bid, and that
>> could throw a large cog into it all.
>>
>
>I actually think this would be to Verizon's *detriment*.
>There's too many legal requirements on *both* the landline
>and the wireless side. I suspect it would take more than a
>year to complete (and thus even longer to see any return on
>it, if any).

I would certainly oppose it actively.

If Verizon were to buy Sprint there would be a big percentage LESS
competition in the market. I think Sprint buying Nextel is bad
enough, but at least they mostly served different markets. Verizon
and Sprint compete directly. I LIKE competition. Keeps the prices
lower, keeps the service better (in theory, at least)

I find it sad that the government let Cingular buy ATT. They
shouldn't have. But ATT was probably unsustainable.

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O/Siris <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I actually think this would be to Verizon's *detriment*.
> There's too many legal requirements on *both* the landline
> and the wireless side. I suspect it would take more than a
> year to complete (and thus even longer to see any return on
> it, if any).
>

I think it would be comparible in scale to the AT&T and Cingular merger.
The resulting company would be a little bigger, so it would certainly
cost more. Further, Verizon has a very low gross margin compared to its
competitors [this perplexes me] so they probably have less to work with
than Cingular did.

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
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