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 Is Sprint Nextel Corp., the wireless carrier plagued by customer defections, law suits and the lingering integration woes, headed for splitsville or an outright sale? The company said May 12 it would consider selling noncore assets, just days after unveiling a long-awaited joint venture with Clearwire Corp. to create a $14.5 billion company to build a next-generation broadband network.
Meanwhile, rumors swirled around the company May 5 that it could divest Nextel, or be headed for a deal with Deutsche Telecom AG, which operates T-Mobile USA. The company could get as little as $5 billion for Nextel if it opts to sell it, Bloomberg noted May 6, citing Cowen and Co. LLC.
And a bid for Sprint Nextel would be a bold move for Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA arm, The Deal's Chris Nolter and Ron Orol noted, and maybe too bold, at that. While such a transaction would put T-Mobile at the top of the market, it would come with great technological risk (as the target operates different technology platforms) and financial concern.
However, the two wrote:
Other names kicked around, Nolter and Orol noted, include SK Telecom International Inc., which in the past held talks with Sprint Nextel, and Vodafone Group plc, which is a minority partner in Verizon Wireless. The Motley Fool took a harder line against a possible Sprint-Deutsche Telekom deal May 5 with a report titled: Deutsche Telecom and Sprint Nextel: Are You Kidding? Sprint lost its mobile JV partners Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., Cox Communications Inc. and Advance/Newhouse Communications in late April, but it said it would remain focused on a WiMax joint venture. Sprint Nextel was reported in March to be in talks with Clearwire, as well as Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks LLC, Google Inc., and Intel Corp. to create a WiMax network. The news capped a month of continued troubles for the company. The five major WiMax investors - Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House - will pump a total of $3.2 billion into the new Clearwire for a 22% stake, according to a May 7 statement. SPRINT'S INHOUSE BLUES Sprint's woes bubbled to the surface again March 17 as two directors became the latest board members to say they would not stand for re-election at the company's annual shareholder meeting May 13. The news came just weeks after new Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse acknowledged the problems at the carrier were more severe than he had anticipated, while fears over the company's ability to maintain its debt covenant rose on Wall Street after a significant draw down. Linda Koch Lorimer and Keith Bane became the third and fourth Sprint Nextel directors this year to say they would give up their board seats as the company struggles with customer defections and a pounded share price. OPTIONS OPEN The telecom unveiled plans Feb. 13 to combine its Reston, Va., headquarters and its Overland Park, Kan., command center, Nolter noted. But its problems don't end there. The company has operated as two companies since Sprint and Nextel became Sprint Nextel through a $35 billion merger, but kept dual brands and headquarters and separate networks and technologies. Rivals AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless -- Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone's JV -- are outrunning Sprint Nextel. Sprint could sell its long distance arm, lower prices or go full throttle on WiMax -- an expensive proposition that makes some investors uneasy -- Nolter noted. Prior to the March 27 report of a possible WiMax joint venture, Sprint Nextel had been trying to formalize a deal exclusively with Clearwire with investment from Intel, according to TheStreet.com. (The two inked a deal in July that fell apart in October. Talks were revived in January.) Hesse is committed to the venture, Corporate Dealmaker's Baz Hiralal pointed out: "In January, Sprint allied with Amdocs Ltd., a maker of telecom software, to support the launch and operations of the Xohm WiMax initiative." Either way, Ralph Whitworth, the investor who played a role in the departure of then-CEO Gary Forsee in October and had a hand in unseating Bob Nardelli from the CEO slot at Home Depot Inc., was appointed Feb. 12 to Sprint Nextel's board. He would likely be good for some input, Nolter noted: Jason Armstrong of Goldman Sachs & Co. notes that Whitworth has a history of buying shares in underperforming companies and pressing for change. "With this backdrop, the most likely path at Sprint is monetizing non-core assets," Armstrong wrote in a Wednesday report, suggesting that WiMax and the long-distance business would be the "logical focus." Whitworth's Relational Investors LLC is a 1.9% Sprint Nextel shareholder. STATIC PROBLEMS On Oct. 5, as questions about Sprint Nextel's future abounded, they translated to a stock drop for Clearwire. Days later, the company again took the bet that a new CEO could right its ship. After speculation ripped through the media for a week, the U.S.' No. 3 wireless carrier saw the resignation Oct. 8 of then-chairman and chief executive Forsee, and said it would look externally for a replacement but that in the mean time, CFO Paul Saleh would fill the role. Heese came on board in December. Saleh left the company at the end of January. Forsee, a seasoned telecom executive who orchestrated the Sprint-Nextel merger, came to Sprint in March 2003 following the ouster of his predecessor William Esrey over a personal tax shelter. At the time, the company's customer churn rate was high and competition was fierce. While things looked brighter by the end of 2004, when the ambitious Sprint-Nextel combination -- predicated on plans to build WiMax came to light, integration struggles and fleeing customers followed. FADED SIGNALSpeculation about Forsee's future with Sprint abounded following a Wall Street Journal report Oct. 4 quoting Whitworth that the firm had lost faith in the CEO. Forsee had been looking for a chief operating officer for several months, and the search for his successor got under way in August, the Journal said. When the company announced his departure Oct. 8, it came alongside news that Sprint expected to report more customers had retreated and a drop in operating income for the third quarter. The nation's third-largest wireless carrier has continually lost ground against AT&T and Verizon Wireless. It might stem from lack of differentiation, as the Journal has pointed out, as carriers have clamored for increasingly tight market share. Verizon touts its network quality and coverage; AT&T is the exclusive carrier of the iPhone stateside. The merged company had some things wrong from the beginning, as Nolter wrote in February 2007:
GOING THE DISTANCE Sprint Nextel has posted some achievements, Nolter has noted:
Further, Forsee has added seasoned telecom dealmakers to help lift the company. Jack Dziak (MCI, WorldCom) joined in January as vice president of strategy to drive the company's three-year strategic plan in an effort to rebound from a grim 2006. In July, Keith Cowan (BellSouth) came on board as president of strategic planning and corporate initiatives. His task was to oversee corporate development and growth initiatives, like a wireless joint venture with top cablers, and construction of the new network. Indeed, Sprint Nextel's vision has long been WiMax, but the company for now relies on its wireless business. BUYOUT CANDIDATE? So what's to come next? During the buyout boom and especially after Little Rock, Ark., wireless carrier Alltel Corp.'s $27.5 billion take-private was announced in May 2007, all eyes turned to Sprint Nextel and its then-$52 billion market cap. But then came the credit crunch, and buyout hope faded. From above $25 per share as recently as 2006, Sprint closed below $10 Feb. 15. - Carolyn Murphy
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