Japan's SoftBank on Monday acquired 70 percent of Sprint in a $2.1 billion deal, and it was reportedly assumed by some that part of that money would go toward Sprint's acquisition of Clearwire.
But celebrations that sent Clearwire's shares to a 52-week high may have been premature, as unnamed sources reported on Tuesday that Sprint has no plans to purchase Clearwire at this time.
The sources told Bloomberg that Sprint will focus solely on the deal with SoftBank, which could reportedly take between six and eight months to close.
Until then, according to the report, Sprint is not looking at any other potential transactions.
Sprint playing it safe
Indeed, Sprint recently withheld a counter-bid that would have seen it competing with T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom for ownership of prepaid carrier MetroPCS.
Though, according to MetroPCS's shareholders' new lawsuit, that deal was assured to go to Deutsche Telekom all along anyway.
Regardless, Sprint's unwillingness to enter that bidding war may indicate that the carrier really is playing it safe until the SoftBank deal is complete.
Sprint-Clearwire deal may be possible
Sprint has shared a bond with Clearwire ever since it announced plans in April 2012 to begin using the smaller carrier's WiMax 4G network for prepaid customers, thus freeing up space for iPhone users on Sprint's 3G network.
In fact, Sprint never explicitly said that it won't take over Clearwire, merely that it's keeping its options open.
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse reportedly said during a conference call that the carrier will use the $2.1 billion from SoftBank in whatever way will most benefit shareholders.
"It could be internal investments, external investments. It could possibly be to retire debt and reduce our interest expenses," he said.
"There are a wide variety of ways that it could be put to use, and we'll make those decisions at a later time."
Via All Things D
