SK Telecom confirms it has no plans to buy Sprint

[psiphi]

Just to quiet the rumors:

http://sprintconnection.kansascity.com/?q=node/701

SK Telecom today said the company has no plans to purchase Sprint Nextel or any other major U.S. wireless company.

Rumors started swirling earlier this week after CNBC reported that SK was in talks to acquire Sprint. Other news organizations quickly countered, reporting that the two companies are considering a technology partnership.

Reuters today said SK Telecom filed a statement with a Korean stock exchange following a request from the exchange.

"We are studying various business opportunities in the United States but are not seeking to take control in (any) major U.S. mobile operator," SK said in the statement.

Sprint and SK Telecom, which both use the same wireless technology, are in discussions about jointly developing new phones and wireless services, according to reports.

Such an arrangement could benefit both companies.

SK Telecom, which controls half of the mobile business in South Korea, is dramatically smaller than Sprint. The company is aggressively putting together partnerships in China and other countries to build scale.

For Sprint, SK is known to be one of the most technologically advanced wireless companies in the world. The company offers handset-based video conferencing, and recently began rolling out High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) service.

The company claims HSUPA allows customers to send files at speeds up to 5.7 megabits per second.

Sprint and SK already have some common ground.

SK in June took a 17 percent ownership interest in Virgin Mobile USA, a wireless company founded in part by Sprint. Virgin uses the Sprint network.

[neodorian]

That's a shame. Sprint has so much potential and I feel some minor loyalty to them after getting such a good deal from them all these years (not even SERO!). They just don't seem to market the way these other companies do and they have always seemed plagued with management issues. A high-tech company like SK could have really turned it around and reached a big market in the process.