SK Telecom buyout rumor spikes Sprint Nextel’s shares

Sprint Nextel Corp.’s stock spiked for a brief time yesterday in after-hours trading due to a report that Korean operator SK Telecom was going to make a bid for the U.S. wireless carriers, according to Reuters.
Sprint Nextel stock temporarily rose more than 14% following the close of trading, and shares of SK Telecom in Seoul were up more than 4% early Tuesday, Reuters reported. However, the report of the pending bid that appeared in the Korea Economic Daily was subsequently denied by SK Telecom, and Sprint Nextel stock was back down to $21.80 per share today. The struggling No. 3 U.S. operator has been the subject of takeover speculation in recent months, which ratcheted up after Alltel Corp. agreed to be purchased by private-equity buyers.
Sprint Nextel declined to comment on the subject.
SK Telecom already has a link to the U.S. and Sprint Nextel in the form of mobile virtual network operator Helio L.L.C.; SK is a co-parent of Helio, which operates on Sprint Nextel’s CDMA network. SK and EarthLink Inc., its partner in the Helio venture, recently announced that they would split the cost of pouring up to $200 million more into Helio’s operations. The MVNO was founded with a $440 million commitment from the two companies.