Google possible buyer of Sprint Nextel?

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Its possible. Google has all the money to buyout Sprint Nextel. But the question is, can they manage the company?

Cave Creek Mortgages

nextel was planning on ditching iden long before the merger. they already had a contract in place with qualcomm to develop q-chat (on cdma by the way) because they knew long before the merger of the 800MHz interference issues and had already committed to the gov/fcc to bail.
as for iden, it was engineered and developed exclusively by motorola for nextel, and contractually maintained wholly by motorola for years. sure some of the folks at nextel had spent the time and effort to cross over and actually learn the technology and supported it, but as a whole, it was a farmed out deal from start to finish. what a fake dot.com-like-do-nothing company.
but to be fair, yes they saw a niche to fill and provided great customer service. but,... "Donahue demonstrated value and return on investment to be important Nextel traits within the worldwide wireless-business market by concentrating on service over pricing." This is what Nextel also brought to Sprint, all of the left-over over spending, inaccurate, inappropriate, and unaccounted for spending and debt.
the majority of the loyal employees from nextel aren't even aware of their own history, and Tim Donahue was there every step of the way well before the merger. and by the way, TD was a shakespearean major in college, no wonder he knew how to wow a crowd. what a fraud, flop, and sell out, and the nextel folks have given him undying loyalty because he appeared sincere and showered them with a little attention from on high.
"The educational and early work background of Donahue bore no relation to either telecommunications or technology. Upon his father's insistence Donahue studied English literature and Shakespeare at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio, graduating in 1971." "Little is known about Donahue's early career. He entered the telecommunications industry in 1984, when he gained employment with MCI Communications Corporation."
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/biography/A-E/Donahue-Tim-M-1949.html
i feel sorry for everyone at nextel that put so much stock in this guy.
by the way, he was a downright crook too. he was forced out of sprint nextel for his "business relationship" with his brother-in-law Glen Grella to the tune of some $18M. and people want to only focus on gary foresee for the merger mess? give me a break.

I found VzW PTT comparable. Its all about VzW network stabilty and on top of it they have comparable PTT.

Nextel was a class on it's own. Since Sprint's customer service drove the Nextel users away. I have been with Nextel since day one and honestly it was spotty at times and still is, but I never gave up. Nextel had the best customer service in the business, and they catered to those who used them. I will keep my IDEN until the day it shuts down.

Nextel and it's narrow minded push to talk mentality needs to think outside the box. Sprint is a big company. All along the people in Reston, Virginia have cut the processes, systems and procedures that worked and forced Sprint to fit into their narrow minded smaller "state of the art" processes. HA! State of the art is a joke on their systems and processes. Dan Hesse and the Overland Park team will one by one get rid of the lead anchors that is holding back Sprint.

You better do your due dillegence on the VZW PTT. It's crap compared to the iDEN PTT or CDMA Q-Chat. It's not even close.

Sorry to say that the Nextel network was far better with out Sprint. Sprints halfass engineers are to blame for the merger failing. They were unable to handle iDEN. They thought they could just move the customers to their CDMA network and use the spectrum Nextel owned for their other FAILURE xholm, which had to be sold because their second rate engineers didnt have a clue how to launch it. When you say that iDEN is best ever you left out one important fact, best ever since the merger. Certainly NOT best EVER.
Maybe Tim Donahue could come back and buy Nextel for half of what Sprint paid and turn it back into the money maker it was before Sprints internal arrogance, dysfunctional culture, and overbearing bureaucracy and dont forget inept engineers, turned it into a can and string network.

Dear ex-nextel customer,

Your believe that Sprint is the cause of the down turn with Nextel is incorrect. While it is aggreable that the mearger was not handled in the best way Sprint's purchase of Nextel in not way effected your service. Nextel's service was failing before Sprint ever purchased it. Sprint was sold a bill of goods which and this is Sprint fault. After completation of the purchase Sprint worked hard to bring the Nextel network back up to the status in need to be at. If Nextel wouldn't have been bought you all would be setting around complaining about how your service with Nextel is crap. No under Sprint the Iden network is best ever and one again leads the industry in push to talk.

Allen is a joke. He sits in his parents basement coming up with ways to not pay his debt. If anyone has looked at his website you'd see what an ass he makes of himself. Also if you search the internet you'll see that Sprint is only one of many companies which Allen "believes" screwed him. Allen even had a fence built and then refused to pay the people because he didn't like it afterward.

Grow up Allen before you come to the grown up table.

I have read many of Jason's articles on this blog and if anything I would have said that Jason is biased for Sprint not against. If you read most of the articles posted by Jason, you get the ideal that he is anti-Apple and pro-Sprint. This is the first recent article that I have read that displays Sprint in a negative attitude. There have been articles written by Jason that present negative news for Sprint but they always seem to try and have a "silver lining". For example, in the recent articles that present the churn rate for Sprint, Jason focuses on how these rates have decreased. Anyway, just my opinion, but if I had to rate his posts I would basically say they are almost more free advertisements for Sprint that business news.

And what the hell is wrong with these image verification screens, it takes me about ten times to get it to work. Stupid validation method!

You obviously aren't from KC... the star loves to concentrate on all of Sprint's issues but never once have I seen anything about the philanthropic work Sprint does... their only interest is selling news papers (if you can call what they produce news) and unfortunately, bad news or negative news sells... the star is willing to sacrafice the local economy for their own well-being... please tell me what part of that is good for the local economy?

What? Boycott? Why? What good news is there to write about Sprint Nextel, the Star is not fabricating anything. So much money was poured into the merger at the expense of BOTH networks. In the end, network wins....always. A fact that ATT and VZW realized a long time ago. As a disgruntled Nextel customer, I blame Sprint, not The KC Star, for the poor performance of it's network, in fact, I think my entire company is switching to VZW as their PTT works just as well or better now than Nextel....and amazingly...works just about everywhere.

I second the motion.
The motion has been seconded and passed.
Any new business? If so, be sure to keep it away from the star or they'll try to run into the ground.
Nice work star...a$$

Allen Harkleroad is a loser.... I see his posts everywhere.. its like he spends his day "stocking" sprint articles.... get a life man

I'd encourage everyone in KC to do what I have done... Boycott the KC Star. I am not a Sprint employee but I am a firm believer in supporting local businesses. The Star has shown a proven track record of "bad-mouthing" local companies... its almost as if they want them to fail. While I obviously check the Star's website (evident by this post) I will NEVER buy another printed paper from them again and I would encourage others to do the same.

Sprint's only alternatives are selling itself outright (100%) or go out of business, the customers are leaving and without customers you have no business, a room full of monkey's could do a better job of running Sprint than the current executive board. oh and Google isn't going to buy a problem, bet on that.

Allen Harkleroad
Sprint Really Sucks
www.sprint-really-sucks.com

I totally agree with the other guys. these "reporters" are just that
blog or otherwise they are paid journalists. Here is what I found out about Blankenhorn directly from zd net:

Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for nearly 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the Interactive Age Daily for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age's "NetMarketing" supplement, and dozens of other publications over the years.

And this makes him an expert on telecom how?

He is a journalist. A biased Journalist and like the other guy..prolly is trying to sell of his stock by stirring the pot in an attempt to get the stock price up.

Follow the money trail.

OK I have to agree here. I found this online about Gertzen. In his own words... and how does this make him an expert on telecom?he is first and foremost a paid journalist for the star. A biased journalist. I see nothing here (beliw) where he claims to be a telecom expert let alone an expert on the business of Sprint.

Jason Gertzen’s Summary
An accomplished journalist with a proven ability to juggle a diverse range of fast-moving, complex and demanding assignments. In recent years I have produced scoops and compelling stories about entrepreneurs pursuing dreams, scientists searching for cures and executives seeking footholds in rapidly shifting industries.

Also have demonstrated expertise in embracing new technology opportunities with development of podcasts, blogs, online polls and other interactive elements to enhance traditional newspaper publication.

I think the point the other person was making is that neither are unbiased. So slamming Sprint rings a bit phoney. Stiring the waters for a sale is a feeble attempt to drive up the stock price maybe so Blankhorn can dump his stock?

Tell me he does not own stock, and tell me being a disgruntled customer does not bias his writings here. Lastly, many here would have never heard of him or his story if not quoted here. So tell me Gertzen is not biased as well.

he slams Sprint enough in his blog, and yes he is a paid reporter for the star so blog or article... how are they different?
he is paid by the star to write approved (by the editor) blogs so again what is the differentiation you are lamely trying to make?

Reporter + paid by paper to write articles and blogs = biased

So how do you know he has cred. Just because someone writes for a particular blog or paper doesnot mean they have any background in that area or any expertise.

Prolly graduated with a Journalism degree, started writing obits. Nice pedegree there right? from obit writer to industry guru.

Because it's an industry reporter blogging, it adds credibility to the blog. Google Wireless would be a powerful brand in the market. While I've been very happy with my Sprint service in years of being a customer, the prospect of Google and Sprint coming together does make my mouth water for what kind of innovation it would bring to the industry.

Based on the quotation marks, I believe it was Blankenhorn who disclosed that he is a dissatisfied customer. As it says "Blankenhorn wrote". Perhaps some reading comprehension skills would not hurt. Skills that can be honed by actually reading. Perhaps reading that paper that you are putting in the bottom of the bird cage. (and evidently not reading) and yes, this is actually a blog...

Sprint lost a million customers. One. Million. Customers. Seems pretty clear what's about to happen, no matter how many pissed-off Sprint employees sound off here. It should be interesting to follow what happens to their 'campus' in OP.

This may be a good thing. Google has attracted top management, which is something Sprint hasn't had in a long time. This all speculation.

Dude, are you not familiar with the concept of a blog? It is not a story in the paper...it is a forum to share opinions.

Nice! you get nearly to the bottom of this so called story where a so called hack reporter for a paper, that is better suited for the bottom of a bird cage than reading (keep losing readership and subscribers yourself boys and girls and call the kettle black why don't ya), and there you finally see Gertzen (the UNBIASED reported for this rag) discloses he is a dissatisfied customer.

You have to hand it to the paper who is losing subscribers faster than Sprint is for assigning a dissatisfied Sprint customer to bash the largets employer in the area multiple times a day.

Add to that all this nonsens about Sprint selling this part, Sprint selling that part, yaddi, yaddi, yadda, from a less than nonexistant web writer who is prolly being paid bu ATT ro Apple and this wonderful bird cage liner to fuel the fire.

Very nice job one and all. No wonder you have less than no credibility locally in the case of Gertzn or any other place as in the case of blankenhorn.

I really needed a good laugh today and you guys are at least providing that.

Un-biased ya right.