Softbank in Talks to Acquire Sprint Nextel

Japanese carrier Softbank is in advanced talks to acquire Sprint Nextel in a deal worth over $13 billion, reports the WSJ. It's not yet clear if Softbank wants to purchase all of Sprint or two thirds of the company.

Sprint executives have said they are eager to join in the industry's consolidation. The approach from Softbank comes as Sprint is making progress stitching together its various network technologies and stemming declines in its revenue and subscriber base following a 2005 merger with Nextel.

Shares of Sprint and Clearwire Corp. jumped in early trading. Sprint owns 49% of struggling Clearwire, which owns large chunks of spectrum in the U.S. and is planning to start a next-generation network using TDD LTE technology. Softbank also working to build a similarly structured high-speed network. Softbank shares fell ¥40, or 1.4%, to close at ¥2,881 in Tokyo.


Softbank is Japan's third largest mobile carrier with revenues of $41 billion. Sprint's revenue last year was about $34 billion.

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