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Nov. 12, 2007 at 9:58am Eastern by Greg Sterling
Google To Acquire Sprint? Don't Bet On It
A TMCnet blog repeats a rumor that Google might buy US wireless carrier Sprint. This is based in part of Google's aggressive push into mobile with Android, its willingness to bid on wireless spectrum licenses, and its efforts to gain access to unused parts of the television spectrum, so-called "white space." It's also based on Sprint's recent financial troubles. Sprint's market capitalization is $46 billion, near its 52-week low.
Price, however, isn't the big deterrent to Google's potential acquisition of Sprint. This speculation is very much akin to rumors that Google might buy a print newspaper or a yellow pages company (see Google Might Buy NBC, Dow Jones, Walmart, Amazon, Pepsi.... ). They all share an apparent solution to one of Google's problems or ambitions. But buying such companies is tremendously inefficient for Google. It would be the same with Sprint; Google would be buying an HR headache and a struggling company that is lagging its chief competitors.
It's much more efficient for Google to partner and do what it's doing in trying to build a broad coalition to support its mobile ambitions. However, the company's apparent willingness to bid on wireless spectrum licenses means that, if it wins, it will in effect become a wireless operator.
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By Greg Sterling
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