[Infowarrior] - Sprint may be bought by Softbank

[Richard Forno]

Softbank Is Said to Be in Talks to Buy Control of Sprint

By Jeffrey McCracken and Yoshinori Eki - Oct 11, 2012 7:49 AM ET

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-11/softbank-said-to-be-in-talks-to-buy-control-of-sprint.html

Softbank Corp. (9984), Japan’s third- largest mobile-phone company, is in talks to buy control of Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), according to two people familiar with the matter.

Softbank is seeking two-thirds of the U.S. company, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Softbank is in discussions to acquire the stake for more than 1.5 trillion yen ($19 billion), Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported on its website, without saying where it got the information.

The deal would give Softbank a base for entering the U.S. market with a compatible carrier that uses similar equipment made by Sweden’s Ericsson AB, the Nikkei reported. Softbank, the fastest-growing Japanese mobile phone provider, this month agreed to pay 180 billion yen for smaller local rival eAccess Ltd. (9427)

Bill White, a spokesman for Overland, Kansas-based Sprint, declined to comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeffrey McCracken in New York at jmccracken3 at bloomberg.net; Yoshinori Eki in Tokyo at yeki at bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom at bloomberg.net

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