- Peter Adderton, the founder of Boost Mobile, said he would be willing to pay up to $2 billion to buy back the prepaid wireless brand from Sprint.
Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton said he is willing to pay up to $2 billion to buy back the prepaid wireless brand from Sprint. Adderton made this announcement via Reuters. At the $2 billion price point, it would represent a major premium of what satellite TV company Dish Network offered to pay for Sprint’s whole prepaid wireless operations.
Earlier this year, U.S. regulators approved of Sprint’s $26.5 billion merger with T-Mobile. To receive the approval from regulators the companies said it would sell Sprint’s prepaid wireless business — including the Boost and Virgin Mobile operations — to Dish for $1.4 billion. Plus the combined companies will also sell some wireless spectrum or airwaves that carry data to Dish for $3.6 billion.
However, the merger deal is still facing litigation from a group of state attorneys general. The state attorneys general claim that this merger would be unfavorable towards consumers.
Currently, Sprint and T-Mobile are renegotiating the terms of the merger. The original negotiations of the merger between Sprint and T-Mobile started last year.
Adderton has been critical of the merger as he said that it would be harmful to the lower-income population who rely on prepaid phone plans. The prepaid phone plans are paid at the beginning of every month and those consumers do not require a credit check.
Adderton originally launched Boost Mobile in Australia and then Nextel acquired its U.S. business in 2004. Nextel was later merged with Sprint in a $35 billion deal back in 2005.
