Analysts are still speculating that Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) may still be interested in bidding for Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel, fueled by comments made by the CEO this week during the company’s earning’s call, the International Herald Tribune reported. CEO RenĂ© Obermann said: “We can’t rule out acquisitions which, when evaluated under strict financial and business criteria, would bring a clear profit and return on investment…That we must do and we will continue to do in the future.” The article said one analyst interpreted the comments as confirmation that Deutsche Telekom was actively considering a bid, which may cost $52 billion. If DT merged Sprint Nextel with its U.S. subsdiary T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest U.S. carrier, the two together would have 81 million customers, making it larger than both AT&T (NYSE: T) Wireless and Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ). The other thing to read into Obermann’s comments is his words “clear profit and return on investment.” Integrating T-Mobile, which uses GSM, and Sprint, which uses CDMA, and Nextel, which uses iDen, will be a costly and time-consumming endeavor.
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