Is It A Sprint to the Finish

Rich Tehrani projects a rumor about Google buying Sprint. I'm not so sure, not because Sprint isn't in play, as they clearly are, but because there's too much of a culture clash. Think of AOL buying Time Warner and where it ended up.

A far better suitor is T-Mobile. Both are corporate in method of operations. Both are mobile centric at this point, and both have a solid grounding in IP networks.

Sprint is way too midwestern in values, approach and levels of enthusiasm. While they operate a very hip and cool innovation lab, not much comes from it, largely because of the leadership and direction issues currently plaguing the company.

Another possible hook up is Qwest, Verizon or even Level3....and one real dark horse, Nokia, which is now becoming network centric and still maintains a CDMA group that could pump devices through the Sprint network.

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Comments

[Ike Elliott]

Andy, you are right again, and Rich is off base this time. Why would Google buy Sprint when Sprint is already cooperating with Google in the OHA? I think Google wants to be the search and advertising platform for all mobile carriers, not just one of the smaller US carriers. I don't think that Level 3 would be interested in buying Sprint, though. More on my blog at http://ikeelliott.typepad.com/telecosm/2007/11/google-buying-a.html