Struggling Sprint Rejects $5B Offer

Former CEO's Nextel legacy remains divisive
By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 30, 2007 4:57 AM CST
Struggling Sprint Rejects $5B Offer
This photo provided by Sprint Nextel Corp. shows the HTC Touch cell phone. Sprint Nextel Corp. announced Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007 it is jumping on the bandwagon with the Touch by HTC. Like Apple Inc.'s iPhone, this smart phone has only a few buttons and is designed to be controlled by touching the screen....   (Associated Press)

A bid by SK Telecom and Providence Equity to invest $5B in Sprint Nextel and install former Sprint chairman Tim Donahue as the company CEO has met with swift rejection from the Sprint board. The move comes as Sprint, which has seen its stock plumet 36% since June, searches for a new CEO, the Wall Street Journal reports.

With share prices falling, investors may be angry that the board dismissed the deal without so much as a meeting, according to analysts.  Donahue, onetime CEO of Nextel, became chairman of Sprint when the two companies merged in 2005, and stepped down late last year. Sprint has performed poorly since the merger, and a deep rift between Nextel and Sprint employees lingers. (More telecom industry stories.)

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