Yesterday, Verizon made an official bid for Sprint in secret. Today, it isn’t a secret, so we can report on it. From the limited information available, Verizon, facing a double threat of a Nextel/Sprint merger and a New Cingular, received approval from Vodaphone (who owns a 45% share of Verizon Wireless) to attempt to merge with Sprint.
The combined company would face a tough approval process, having a combined customer base of 65 million. Sources inside Verizon cite a need for a more robust network and Sprint’s unified billing and customer service systems as reasons besides increased competition.
This lands the ball solely in the hands of Len Lauer and Gary Forsee: Take Nextel, or Become Verizon?
