Rumor Mill: Google Acquiring Sprint
Recent news that Sprint is not going to work with Clearwire to build out a WiMAX network only added to the rumors I have been hearing about Google acquiring Sprint Nextel. On the surface it seems like this would be a bad move for Google but in reality …
Context & Ripple Effects
Two days after Sprint and Clearwire terminated their joint WiMAX agreement — a deal that had been meant to put WiMAX coverage within reach of 100 million people — VoIP Blog reports hearing persistent rumors that Google is looking at acquiring Sprint Nextel outright. The timing is doing the work here: with Sprint suddenly partnerless on its next-generation network buildout, speculation about a deep-pocketed suitor fills the vacuum.
Neither company has confirmed anything, and the rumor's provenance is a blog reporting secondhand chatter rather than a named source — so this sits firmly in unconfirmed territory. What makes it worth watching anyway is the strategic logic the post gestures at: Google has been expanding well beyond search through 2007, and owning a national carrier would be a step change even by that standard.
First-order effects
- Sprint enters December without a WiMAX partner, having walked away from the Clearwire agreement that anchored its 100-million-person coverage plan, leaving its 4G roadmap exposed while rivals' 3G networks mature.
Second-order effects
- Clearwire loses its anchor backer and must find replacement capital or partners to keep its WiMAX buildout alive, while an actual Google bid would force AT&T and Verizon to treat an internet company as a direct carrier competitor.
Third-order effects
- If internet-scale acquirers keep circling carrier assets, the structural line between content/application companies and network operators starts to blur — with spectrum ownership becoming the choke point regulators would have to weigh.
The trend: Wireless broadband is pulling internet companies toward carrier assets, with each failed carrier partnership inviting speculation about which platform giant steps in next.