Sprint buys iPCS to squash legal battle
By Will Park on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 11:47 AM PST In Announcements, Financial/Corporate News, Sprint
What do you do when you’re one of the biggest US wireless carrier (by subscriber count) and one of your network partners files suit against you for violating exclusivity agreements? Well, if you’re Sprint (NYSE: S), and you’re desperately trying to get your WiMAX network off the ground, you get enough money together to straight up buy the smaller carrier partner. At least that’s what Sprint has done with the iPCS. Sprint has apparently bought out iPCS for $426 million, in addition to a $405 million debt assumption.
iPCS had been making noise over Sprint’s long-ago acquisition deal that brought Nextel into the fold. Sprint’s Nextel acquisition, said iPCS, violated an exclusivity deal that gave iPCS sole rights to use the Sprint brand in certain regions. Then, following Sprint’s deal to buy a 51% controlling stake in WiMAX carrier Clearwire, iPCS filed suit over their rights to the Sprint brand.
So, today, Sprint has announced that it will be buying iPCS outright. Part of the deal states that both parties will end any and all ongoing litigation between the two companies. The deal also allows Sprint to continue operations throughout the US without divesting any iDEN holdings in iPCS’s markets.
Now, about that WiMAX network going nationwide in the US…
[Via: Bloomberg]
whats really interesting about sprints wi-max network is how they can switch it to LTE with just a software upgrade, that is a smart move because like they said if wi-max isnt the future then theyll go with lte. sprint is by network standards second to verizon.
[...] iPCS (IPCS) for $831 million, including the assumption of $405 million in net debt. This deal will squash the legal battle that has been brewing between the two since the acquisition of [...]
[...] iPCS (IPCS) for $831 million, including the assumption of $405 million in net debt. This deal will squash the legal battle that has been brewing between the two since the acquisition of [...]