Report: SK Telecom in talks to acquire Sprint

Updated at 2:22 p.m. PDT. See below.

South Korea's largest wireless provider is said to be in discussions with Sprint about a potential acquisition, according to a report on CNBC's Web site.

Citing "people familiar with the situation," CNBC says that SK Telecom is interested in acquiring the much larger Sprint Nextel, but that any deal is still "weeks away," and that Sprint's own board of directors is "divided" about whether to sell the company at all.

The report says that SK Telecom will not pursue Sprint if it is not open to acquisition, and that no specific negotiation price has been discussed.

SK Telecom is significantly smaller than Sprint Nextel--with 22 million subscribers, compared to 54 million--and would likely need to partner with private equity firms to get any potential deal done. But it's also unclear whether U.S. regulators would go for selling the company to a foreign operator.

It's not the first time the beleaguered wireless operator has been rumored to be for sale. In early May, there were reports it was in discussions with Deutsche Telekom about an acquisition.

Update: This looks to be a false alarm. Both Reuters and the Wall Street Journal are citing other sources that say the talks are about collaborating on technology, and not about an acquisition.

[JCPayne]

They need to re-train Sprint's entire customer support if they take them over.....

So in effect this would be merging Helio and Sprint right??? Since ofcource SK owns part of Helio (Along with Earthlink)

See more info @
http://www.helio.com/page?p=investor_relations

[JCPayne]

ALSO.... If you take over Nextel's Walkie-Talkie... Open it up to other handset operators besides just Motorola... Motorola Nextel phones are soooooo bad.... They weigh a ton and their batterylife/ graphics are horrible.... Open up the walkie-talkie to more mobile phone markers.....

[jayhawk73]

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the companies were in preliminary talks about developing new handsets and services together, as their networks use the same technology.

The report, citing people familiar with the matter, said the companies also are considering SK Telecom becoming a minority investor in Sprint.

In November, the Wall Street Journal reported that Sprint had rejected a $5 billion investment offer from SK Telecom and Providence Equity Partners.

[ericaatnews]

Thanks, I just updated the story to reflect that a few minutes ago.

Sprint overcharged my small (US) company for over $50,000.00. We caught them doing it and now they refuse to refund the over-payments. You can read the full story at http://www.sprint-really-sucks.com

I also wrote an open letter to Dan Hesse the Chairman and CEO of Sprint Nextel. It is a good read so please consider reading the letter.

http://www.sprint-really-sucks.com/open-letter-dan-hesse.aspx

[gerrrg]

Then file a complaint with your State AG, the BBB, and take them to court.