SoftBank Buys 70% of Spring Nextel

Japanese-based SoftBank acquired 70% of publicly traded Spring Nextel, it announced earlier this week.  According to sources, this purchase will not affect  800 MHz Rebanding.

Sprint Nextel is the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, and this $20.1 billion deal marks the largest amount a Japanese firm has spent on an overseas acquisition.  Founder and chief of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son and Sprint CEO Dan Hesse made the announcement at a news conference in Tokyo on Monday.

The deal will be finalized with approval from Sprint Nextel stockholders and U.S. regulators, but analysts see no hurdles to this approval since Federal agencies are not as concerned about foreign acquisitions of communications carriers as they used to be.

What does this mean for public safety?  As of now, not much since Sprint spokesman John Taylor stated that the acquisition changes nothing with regard to Rebanding in an interview with Urgent Communications.

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Reuters