Sprint-Nextel wants to lose Nextel

6 May 2008 | 08:45 BST

By Nick Farrell

WHILE Wall Street sits and waits for Deutsche Telekom to buy Sprint-Nextel, the firm is apparently thinking of shedding the Nextel bit of its operation.

Sprint paid $35 billion for Nextel in 2005, and rapidly discovered it had bought a lemon. Last year it wrote off most of the value of the company, or $29.7 billion, as a goodwill impairment charge.

Nextel’s business, which is mostly a walkie talkie network, is shrinking faster than a Antarctic endurance swimmer’s scrotum. Nextel has 13.2 million subscriptions, down from 16.6 million two years ago and Sprint expects that figure to fall to five million in two years.

Sprint is thinking that it has its own technology and network to replace the entire operation and no longer needs Nextel.

The Wall Street Journal has named Nextel founder Morgan O'Brien, who has since founded Cyren Call, as a potential buyer. His new outfit wants to build a wireless network for public safety usage.
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