Sprint Nextel buys UbiquiTel for $1 billion

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, April, 2006 | by Jane M. Von Bergen

Sprint Nextel Corp. continued its post-merger mop-up operations today, agreeing to pay $1 billion to acquire wireless-phone-service-reseller UbiquiTel Inc., of Conshohocken.

When Sprint Corp. bought Nextel Communications Inc. in August for $38 billion, it set into motion a string of events that included today's announcement that it would buy UbiquiTel, which employs 425 and serves about 600,000 cell-phone subscribers.

UbiquiTel had 2005 revenue of $422.7 million. Sprint Nextel, based in Reston, Va., had 2005 revenue of $34.7 billion. UbiquiTel and Sprint have an affiliation in nine states.

"It's not a big deal, it's not a negative deal," said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications analyst in Atlanta. "It's just part of wrapping up the loose ends of...