A Sprint employee

At This Price, Sprint Is a Steal for the Right Suitor

It is highly likely that someone will buy S, but why break it up? Sprint has, much to Gary Forsee's chagrin, finally embraced IDEN and integrated the majority of the systems to work together. And in the wake of the monster players, it would be difficult for a stand-alone Nextel to survive. Just like if Chrysler decided to spin off the Jeep line. How can a niche player survive without a bigger brother to buy them economies of scale?

So who would buy it? Not private equity groups...their source of funding has dried up. S may be undervalued, but it is still a monster number. Alltel was just bought by such a private equity group, so unlikely they have $20-30 Billion kicking around. Verizon (contrary to the author's opinion) would face severe scrutiny by the Feds, and in any case, if they don't make the move in the next month or so then they could very well roll into the next administration. And if that administration is not Republican, it is highly unlikely to be approved. And, of course, Vodafone may have no desire to be involved in all of this, and as silent co-owners, they call the shots. I think that Carlos Slim should be the one. He knows the business, it gets him an immediate base, and with the right marketing he could double (triple, quadruple) calls between his two customer bases (US and Mexico), in the only area that is NOT covered in anyone's calling plans--international long distance. Money to be made there.