A Cross Border Telecom M&A Boom?
[qi:018] With Reliance Communications buying Yipes for $300 million, and the markets abuzz with rumors about Vodafone buying Verizon (NOT!) for an ungodly sum, it seems telecom cross border M&A is back in fashion. Andy Abramson fresh from sacrificing his bachelor status in South of France is spreading some Bordeaux flavored rumors: AT&T may hook-up with Vodafone.
Try sneaking this one past the regulators, or a deal so big and so complex, that it could have you reaching for a glass of something stronger than just wine. But hey, I also said no-way Google is going to buy YouTube for $1.6 billion.
Now where was that Cask-Strength Macallan… talk about strong stuff. 😉
No no no…. staying away from that stuff. 😉
What seems strange is why is no one raising the very logical move of Vodaphone buying Sprint. At that point they could do a couple of interesting things (not necessarily mutually exclusive).
1) Sell Verizon Wireless stake back to Verizon
2) Leverage Verizon Wireless stake to allow pain-free conversion of Sprint network to GSM — legacy customers just use the Verizon Network until everyone has a GSM handset and can use the new Sprint network
3) Sell the Verizon Wireless stake and legacy Sprint/Nextel networks (maybe all to Verizon, maybe piecemeal — I bet the guys who bought Alltel would want some of it) and use the money to build a really kickass WiMAX network and just be all IP in the US