CenturyLink Mooted As Likely Buyer For Sprint-Nextel

In outlining his company's opposition to plans for two of the US' largest mobile network operators to merge, Sprint Nextel's CEO, Dan Hesse, revealed that the combined entity's dominance and ability to influence service pricing and handset replacement trends would leave Sprint, the nation's third largest player, in a weakened position, making its eventual takeover by another operator inevitable. BMI had expected Sprint Nextel to claim that the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile would be inherently anti-competitive, but we had not expected Hesse to be quite so blunt in outlining his company's fate. We had thought Sprint might acquire some of its smaller rivals in an attempt to keep pace with market developments, but fixed-line operator CenturyLink increasingly looks like a credible suitor for Sprint.

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