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Go figure.  CNBC says SK Telecom is in talks to purchase Sprint Nextel; obviously SK Telecom does not read my ”Who’s on Crack” column where I’ve made fun of Sprint a couple of times.

SK Telecom recently dumped Helio on Virgin Mobile at a loss and is probably thinking, “what do I do with all these dollars?” You sure don’t change them back into euros.  SK made an offer last November that was rejected by Sprint.  CNBC cites sources that say SK is looking for a friendly deal and they won’t be going it alone, they’d secure help from funds with the purchase.

Our own Elizabeth Young noted just last week how well Sprint seemed to be doing, maybe SK reads her stuff…

More as it happens.

Read [Barrons]

The buzz on Wall Street is speculating that Sprint-Nextel may be on its way for a turnaround. Executives from Verizon Wireless and AT&T are saying they see fewer Sprint subscribers are moving to their own networks.

As unsupported as this rumor stands, the speculation boosted Sprint’s stock price to a 13% growth last week and another 5.84% jump last Monday. 

Several things, at least, is happening with Sprint.  An aggressive marketing campaign starring its CEO Dan Hesse is on the way.  New products, such as Samsung’s Instinct smartphone, have been released.  The company also announced it will begin to rollout its WiMax assets.  And there have been rumors that Hesse wants to let go of the Nextel business, which has been its weaker leg.

The Wall Street Journal, however, warns investors not to expect a quick turnaround for the company.  The coming of the iPhone 3G and Verizon’s BlackBerry Thunder could only mean more problems for the struggling Sprint.

Read [CNET]

With little surprise, Sprint has officially released the Samsung Instinct. Although an anticipated phone, they have kept few details secret and even surprised us at the last minute with that price drop. So for those who could not wait, head on over and grab your Instinct today. Just one small catch, that $129.99 price tag comes in the form of both instant savings and a mail-in-rebate, which means if you forget to send in your rebate form, your phone will be $100 higher. Otherwise you can not argue against a price like that when you have such a full feature list, Sprint has even included a nice accessory package that includes a 2GB microSD card with adapter, a spare battery and more.

Product [Sprint]

Sprint posted a 1st quarter loss of over $500 million, prompting the company to announce they may seek changes to its credit agreements.  The company expects to have enough cash to cover it’s operations and debt repayments through the end of 2009 but may ask its creditors for waivers or amendments.

“This is a nightmare game of whack-a-mole where new problems keep popping up faster than you can address,” said Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett. “The fact they’re now talking openly about their available liquidity makes it clear this is not a short-term turn around.”

Sprint reports a net debt of nearly $20 billion, much of it coming from its 2005 merger with Nextel, which many consider a failure. Standard & Poor dropped Sprint’s credit status to junk earlier this month. Rumored to be an acquisition target of Deutsche Telekom AG, the third ranked cellular provider promised to update shareholders in August. As a long time Sprint customer who has been very happy with the service, I can only hope for the best and wonder where Sprint would be today if they hadn’t made the mistake of merging with Nextel.

Read [Reuters]

Sprint has begun informing customers that it will soon discontinue its server based Voice Command service. The service, originally offered for free to visually impaired customers in 2003, allowed users to use voice commands to place calls and was available on all of the CDMA phones. Users who currently subscribe to the service have until July 1, 2008 to download their phonebooks and begin using other options that are available. Sprint is encouraging the remaining users to instead use the voice dialing features built into their handsets. While Sprint has not publicly commented on the decision, it’s likely it was yet another cost cutting move.

Read [RCRNews]

This rumor is spinning today and it makes some sense.  It is said Sprint is considering selling off Nextel to stem some of the losses it is encountering.  Many analysts name the merger between Sprint and Nextel as the cause for Sprints ongoing troubles.

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Sprint-Nextel’s stock dropped more than 9% after the company announced a $29.45 billion 4th quarter loss.The loss is being blamed on a huge write down related to the company’s merger with Nextel. The company also announced the suspension of dividend payouts and the borrowing of $2.5 billion from a revolving credit facility. Sprint-Nextel CEO Dan Hesse said the loan would allow them to focus on fixing the business and avoid the financial risk of outstanding loans.

Read [New York Times]

Sprint Nextel has announced that it will close 125 of its retail stores, eliminate over 4,000 3rd party distribution points, and cut 4,000 jobs. Company officials say they expect the cuts to be complete by June. The job cuts affect most departments, including sales, marketing, product and development, network, information technology, finance, human resources, legal and communications but will not be extended to the customer service or repair departments. Sprint, the third largest provider, has been struggling to compete with Verizon and AT&T since it’s botched merger with Nextel two years ago and lost 683,000 subscribers last quarter. Sprint says the moves will save $700 to $800 million a year.

Read[The Washington Post]

After a long period of speculation, Sprint has finally announced its CDMA + iDEN hardware.  CDMA, as you may know, is the technology that runs both Sprint and Verizon’s networks in the US.  And iDEN - until now - was an incompatible network used by Nextel, which was of course acquired by Sprint back in 2005.  iDEN is the technology used in the Push To Talk service for instant (walkie-talkie-like) communication.

With Sprint’s latest announcement, we can expect most future handsets to be Push To Talk compatible, combining their CDMA and iDEN features.  The Motorola phones set to utilize the dual-network functionality are being branded the Motorola Buzz ic502 and the Motorola Blend.  That’s very Motorola, but I’m kind of concerned that they didn’t choose BUZZ and BLND as the model names.  What happened to the 4 letter words, MOTO?

Press Release [Sprint] Via [CrunchGizzear]

Sprint/Nextel have launched the new ic502, which will finally merge their iDEN and CDMA networks.  iDEN is a proprietary network developed by Motorola and used by Nextel.  Since Sprint and Nextel have since merged, their goal is obviously to bring the two technologies together and become a dominant carrier.  The ic502 uses the iDEN network for its walkie talkie functionality and the CDMA for its standard voice services.  The one drawback of this phone, other than its looks, is that the data transfer is limited to 1X speeds.  Expect Sprint/Nextel’s next iDEN/CDMA offering to add EVDO into the mix.

Read [Phone Scoop]