Sprint Nextel shares are rising again this morning, one day after the company said “never mind” about its plans to issue $3 billion in additional stock.

They were up more than 3 percent in early trading. UPDATE: Sprint shares closed Friday at 8.72, up 93 cents, or nearly 12 percent on the day.

Rumors started flying Thursday afternoon that Sprint was pulling back from its plans announced less than 24 hours earlier that it would issue 3 million cumulative perpetual convertible preferred stock in a bid to start trimming its mound of debt.

“Mr. Market apparently was hoping Sprint finally would be put out of investors’ misery by South Korea’s SK Telecom, with which Sprint has been in talks about everything from an outright sale to a $5 billion stake sale,” said The Wall Street Journal’s Deal Journal. “It is too early to tell what will happen with Sprint and SK Telecom. That said, the company didn’t pull the convertible offering because a merger is in the works. Instead, people familiar with the offering say the deal suffered from garden-variety investor ennui.”

Nope. No merger.

It was just that Sprint didn’t find buyers offering good rates when it went to market on Thursday, explained Bill White, a corporate communications executive at Sprint.

This report quoted Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher King as saying Sprint’s struggle to find buyers with good terms was not a surprise. Just consider the general economy and Sprint’s ongoing struggles, he said.

"$3 billion is a big number," King said. "Combined with the fact Sprint is continuing the struggle and the current environment, it's not great timing."

Dave Mock at Motley Fool said investors hammered Sprint shares when they first heard the plan to dilute its value by issuing millions of new shares. “So, investors playing the Sprint turnaround are getting a good lesson in patience,” Mock said. “Certainly, there's a lot of value in the company's network and customer assets. But it takes time, strong leadership, and good execution to unlock that value.”