Japanese wireless carrier and soon-to-be Sprint Nextel majority owner Softbank, noted late last week that its interest in the U.S. market may not be over. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Softbank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said the company would not rule out future acquisition attempts.
While the target of that future expansion was not disclosed, Sprint Nextel has made recent waves with talk of a counter bid for MetroPCS, which rival T-Mobile USA announced earlier this month it would acquire. Sprint Nextel reportedly held a board meeting immediately after the T-Mobile USA/MetroPCS announcement to discuss a counter offer, though Softbank’s investment into Sprint Nextel could also have been the cause of such a get together. A fresh bid from Softbank/Sprint Nextel could be welcomed by MetroPCS shareholders, some of which were not happy with the convoluted terms of T-Mobile USA’s offer.
In the WSJ interview, Son noted that the carrier would be aggressive in bolstering Sprint Nextel’s presence in the domestic market, looking to mimic the turn around it performed following its acquisition of Vodafone’s wireless operations in Japan in 2006 for $15.4 billion.
While MetroPCS could be on the table, a more immediate concern for Softbank could be in gaining control of Clearwire and its wealth of 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings. Sprint Nextel last week made a deal with Clearwire investor Eagle River Holdings to gain controlling board interest in Clearwire, which could set the stage for a broader takeover of the financially beleaguered carrier. Softbank is currently rolling out TD-LTE technology using the 2.5 GHz band in Japan that in combination with Clearwire’s similar plans for the United States could result in greater buying power for the relatively new technology.
Analyst noted that Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse mentioned that the health of Clearwire was good for Sprint Nextel, and that government regulators could be open to further consolidation in the domestic wireless space outside of the nation’s two largest operators.
“Hesse was clear that he does not think [four] national players is the ‘magic number’ for the [Federal Communications Commission/Department of Justice],” noted Wells Fargo Securities Senior Analyst Jennifer Fritzsche in a research note. “Rather, he believes [Washington, D.C.] is increasingly concerned about the growing duopoly of [AT&T] and [Verizon] vs. other players and would like stronger players to compete.”
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