Sprint Possibly Working On A Deal To Buy Virgin Mobile USA

I heard it from the rumor mill today that Sprint might be working on a deal to acquire controlling interest in Virgin Mobile USA, Inc. I don't know any of the details of the potential acquisition nor do I know exactly when and if this deal will actually go through but it sounds like a deal that would make sense. While I can't site any immediate proof, today Virgin Mobile just executed an amendment letter with Virgin (VEL) granting the company exclusive rights to the names "Virgin Mobile," "Virgin Mobile USA" and "Virgin Mobile Broadband to Go." This move would be of no importance if Virgin Mobile USA was continuing with business as usual!

Sprint is currently the underlying carrier for Virgin Mobile, so integrating their customers into the Sprint systems should be relatively easy. Also with the growth in wireless subscriber count only coming through mergers and acquisitions for the big 4 providers, this deal would certainly be a welcome surprise for Sprint shareholders. The addition of roughly 5 million subscribers to Sprint's true subscriber counts would be a huge move.

This deal, if true, would also remove one of the largest single MVNO competitors in the US marketplace, thus cutting down the competitive landscape. It would be interesting to see if they continue with Virgin Mobile brand name or roll everything into their Boost Mobile prepaid brand name.

So stay tuned to see what happens!