Sprint Makes It Official - Buys Out Remaining Stake in Virgin Mobile USA

For those of you doubters all I have to say is I told you so ;)

Sprint finally made it official last week, announcing that they had acquired the remaining shares of Virgin Mobile USA (they previously owned 13% of the company) for $483 million in equity. This resulted in Sprint paying $5.50 a share a big premium considering the stock had been selling for less than a $1 earlier in the year.

Considering Sprint just reported a loss of over$388 million in it's last quarter and a loss of about 257,000 subscribers, this deal is a must for the carrier struggling to make ends meet. The one downside to the new subs Sprint is inheriting from Virgin, is that they are much less profitable ones than the post paid customers. On the plus side, removing Virgin as a competitor, helps Boost/Virgin solidify it's space in the price war ridden and fast growing pre-paid space.

Time will tell how this deal actually plays out but on the surface it seems like it could be a smart move for Sprint.