CenturyLink likely buyer of Sprint following AT&T-Mobile merger apocalypse

By on May 17, 2011 at 1:32 PM
Business May 17, 2011

In a Congressional appearance last week, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse explained just why his company objects to the proposed $39 billion AT&T and T-Mobile merger. Aside from his previously expressed grievances — that the merger would create a wireless duopoly and stifle competition — Hesse also noted another possible paradigm: the deal could lead to Sprint being bought or acquired as well. “The most likely buyer is CenturyLink, the biggest company in telecommunications without a wireless unit,” writes Bloomberg, quoting industry analysts. Other potential Sprint buyers on the publication’s post-merger hit-list include Comcast Communications — a company that might be interested in bundling home internet, phone and cable services with wireless offerings. Most analysts agree that a Sprint purchase would come at least two full-quarters after the AT&T and T-Mobile deal has been finalized, although the idea of the Now Network being procured is still very speculative. Representatives from Sprint, CenturyLink, and Comcast all declined to comment on the report.

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  • Booyah

    Great I just got rid of Comcast. Now they’re gonna find a way to add mysterious charges to my cell phone bill! FML!

  • Johno601

     i think if comcast bought sprint they would do good with t

  • http://twitter.com/_fredLjones Fredrick Jones

    smh, there goes everything.

  • Anonymous

    Hahaha, thats what you get Sprint for being a whinny baby about the AT&TMobile merger…

    • Nick Drake

       how is that relevant to them being bought out?

  • Homerandabe69

     I think if sprint gets bought out i will just have to go without a cell phone for the rest of my life.

  • Ijames1000

    Wow. No new competitors should b allowed to enter. That would slow down the innovation as well. Verizon should take sprint out.

    • Drew

      Maybe that’s the plan… Have some obscure company with plenty of credentials to back this deal up, come in and try to buy Sprint out of the blue but the “lesser of two evils” (Verizon) comes in to save the day and buy up Sprint and we all breathe a sigh of relief only to find out it was all a scam and part of the plan… Yes, I am a conspiracy theorist.

  • Strategic Capital Corporation

     I have worked with Comcast and they are a very organization to work with

    • Booyah

      Yes I agree they are a very organization to work with

      • Anonymous

        I don’t know,  I found that they were an incredibly organization to work with

  • http://twitter.com/MattSTKC MattSTKC

    CenturyLink has a cooler logo. I hope they win the battle. Meanwhile at the Legion of D– AT&T&T Death St-Office… 

  • Anonymous

    As Liberating as getting FIOS services were for me, there is a reason I keep my Sprint Service seperate from my Verizon business. I love Verizon for freeing me from the Mid-Atlantic monopoly known as Comcast but that doesnt mean I want to head over to VZW for a cell phone. There is no way I would ever get tied back into Comcast. For any service. Period. Especially cellular.

    I dont know about Century Link, and I dont care who they are. Sprint should be allowed to be that 3rd wheel IF an agreement is approved. If At&t deal gets denied, then an attempt to acquire Sprint whether they have a Wireless division or not should be denied as well.

  • Anonymous

     Nah.. Google’s buying Sprint.  That’s why they are building the fiber network in Kansas City.

    • JK

      i think that would be cool!

  • Eric

    Verizon won’t let Comcast come into the picture. 

  • bobob

    Great. So after 6 months, Xfinicrap will increase your cell phone plan automatically.

    I’m sorry, those packages are only available for new customers.

  • http://profiles.google.com/coryglee Cory Lee

    I don’t think that in any world AT&T + TMO is good for consumers.  There’s no viable argument that it could be good.

    • Anonymous

       Lets see, where do I begin…

      1.)  D.T. does not want US TMo and will not back them up, so they have no giant revenue coming in except from customers.

      2.)  AT&T has a huge cash reserve and is willing to spend a lot of it on its LTE rollout plan.

      3.)  TMo has no LTE future (just expanding its 3G+)

      4.)  AT&T buys out TMo and uses its spectrum to further advance AT&Ts LTE network and boost up its current 3G network.

      5.)  Some/most TMo customers may not want this, in fear of price raises, and jumps ship to Sprint/Verizon.  Thus creating relief from AT&TMo having fewer customers on all of its new spectrum.

      6.)  Sprint/Verizon get a piece of the pie because they received new customers.

      There, is that argument good enough for you?

      • Anonymous

        Didn’t you just explain how it’s good for them, the corporations, not us?

  • Drew

    This is HORRID!! I think I’ll move to Europe… (At&t and Comcast) Two of THE worst companies to ever be in charge of monopolizing data.

  • serpentor

     Speaking of this merger… did that Sprint promo of $175 CL credit for tmo customers go up yet?

    I don’t see it on their website.

  • http://twitter.com/Nobreadforme Ted Yates

     And now the end is near. We are currently trending toward a AT&T vs Verizon battle. And if you need further evidence, check out the Kyocera Echo.  

  • Haw Kor

     Perhaps Google would like to acquire Sprint. It may just fall in line with their telecommunications strategy.

    • Dejan Jancevski

       We can only pray that Google takes over Sprint.  At least then Sprint might have 2 awesome things happen: 1) faster Android OS rollouts/updates, and 2) better customer service.  And given how Google is investing in rolling out their own fiber optic network, it would mean that Google would take over as the backbone of Sprint’s otherwise crappy network…and maybe afterwards, Google might actually upgrade and expand the Sprint CDMA network (I would also hope the Nextel iDEN network, but Sprint is dead set on killing iDEN).

      Heck, anyone taking over Sprint would most likely be a God-send.

      • Neal

        Google has terrible customer service.

      • Dejan Jancevski

         Neal…even Google’s CS is 1000x better than the garbage that Sprint is trying to pawn off as customer service.  Now, if Sprint used the old NEXTEL CS, then I’d only the lack of coverage in their native network(s) to complain about. 

        BTW, that reminds me…where is my freakin’ WiMAX promise Sprint?!?

  • Bnick007

    Of course Centurylink would be mentioned as a possible suitor. Centurylink was formed when Centurytel and Embarq merged.  If anyone remembers Embarq was created when Sprint spun off its landline buisness in 2006.  Centurytel has been in and out of the wireless buisness for a long time.  When they did have wireless they sold the division to Alltel.  

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