Sprint acquires Virgin Mobile USA for a cool $483m

Remember Virgin Mobile? Sure you do -- not long ago the last-man-standing MVNO snapped up Helio, and seemed ready to take its place as one of the few boutique prepaid operations still... er, operating. Well that appears to be all but done and done, as Sprint has just announced a "definitive agreement" to purchase the company for $483 million worth of sweet, succulent stock (which looks to be right about what it was valued at to begin with). It looks like Sprint will pair the acquisition with its Boost Mobile brand, which till now was in direct competition with VM. It's not quite rival city, however, Virgin Mobile USA was launched as a joint venture with Sprint, and the MVNO glides on Dan Hesse's network as it is. Still, it does seem to be another indicator that the days of the MVNO are certainly on the wane, though Sprint now looks to own the space -- what little there is.

[trainwrecka Posted Jul 28th 2009 8:46AM]

With our powers combined... well, we'll probably still bring up the rear.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:21AM]

win.

[DaveBach Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:20PM]

With Sprint buying Virgin Mobile and looking to merge it with their Boost Mobile option it might make for one sweet unlimited pre-paid option. The Boost Mobile unlimited plan is priced great at $50 but currently utilizes the Nextel IDEN network. Virgin Mobile however has been using the Sprint network.

[GenesisDH Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:39PM]

@Dave

Anyone can change a Boost iDen account to a CDMA account, getting EVDO capable data and unlimited everything for the same price, as long as you can find a 'Clear to be activated' Boost CDMA phone (or even a Sprint branded phone in certain cases).

[Barry D Enmuph Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:48PM]

hmmm. increasing value for an eventual sale?? attempting to keep outlets for network users alive?? perhaps both?? interesting.

[nikster Posted Jul 28th 2009 11:58PM]

@Dave - How is $50 great? I pay about $30/month for my prepaid SIM. It's not unlimited, but I don't particularly try to save money, it's just what it works out to. And that includes 20 hours of data access, enough for Tweetie and email.

[Nerd With Out A Cause Posted Jul 28th 2009 8:48AM]

Looks like virgin mobile lost its virginity.

[FAP FAP FAP Posted Jul 28th 2009 8:54AM]

HA HA HA no.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:02AM]

Just like your mom.

[ixianradeon Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:05AM]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
Thats what she said....

[Jakob Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:05AM]

Haha and Sprint being the dirty old man?

[Ryan Trevisol Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:20AM]

Unless, of course, he's Jesus.

[bullshitexpresscom Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:39AM]

Amen

[AwlAmericanDawg Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:51PM]

Hah, good one.

[216 Posted Jul 28th 2009 8:58AM]

see now Verizon needs to stop playing around and just buy up Sprint

[charliehustle Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:03AM]

i dont think vzw can afford sprint. Also sprint is still one of the big 3 in america.

[zephxiii Posted Jul 30th 2009 6:44PM]

Are you crazy? VZW buying sprint would be the LAST thing I would ever want to see...if anything Sprint should buy USCC.

[Raul7 Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:56AM]

"Also sprint is still one of the big 3 in america."
So who cares? Look how your "big" car industry ended up.

[DaveBach Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:31PM]

@ zephxiii
I don't see Sprint buying U.S. Cellular. Sure it would give them just over a 10% boost in subscribers but when people wake up to how much they're actually paying for their plans with AT&T and Verizon compared to Sprint they'll be bring on loads of new customers all on their own. U.S. Cellular is a nice regional provider with great customer service. Sprint has certainly done a 180 to bring their customer service up a few levels too over the past couple years. So customer service would merge nicely. But I just don't see U.S. Cellular selling out anytime soon. Free incoming calls compared to just the first minute on my Sprint plan however would be nice.

[Galactor963 Posted Jul 28th 2009 8:59AM]

Maybe it's just the settings on my monitor, but the yellow logo looks kind of trippy. That being said, I really hope they stick with the red.

[tiger578 Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:19AM]

It's blinding to me x-x

[CT Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:06AM]

Is it a pay as you go plan that they bought at the 7-11?

[theMediaman Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:10AM]

Looks like Virgin Mobile is out of North America. Bell just bought the other 50% of Virgin Mobile Canada.

Branson needs some money to support his skydiving habit?

[Guspaz Posted Jul 28th 2009 3:41PM]

Yes and no. Bell seems intent on keeping the Virgin brand intact; I suspect it's more of a we-want-the-profit thing. Virgin Mobile was phenomenally successful in Canada (they had 300k customers, or 1% of the Canadian population, which is crazy high for an MVNO).

Bell's own alternative brand, Solo Mobile, is a failure; unlike the secondary brands of Rogers (Fido) and Telus (Koodo), few people have even heard of Solo Mobile.

Virgin Mobile, on the other hand, did manage to garner a lot of mindshare. I suspect that Bell wants to position Virgin as their new alternative brand, maintaining the tradition of Canadian telecoms of keeping a semi-independent brand on the side for the low-budget crowd. These alternative brands usually have independent customer service, and vastly different pricing options when compared to their parent companies.

For example, Fido offers a 2000 minutes for $40 plan, while Rogers doesn't have anything vaguely similar (or nearly as cheap per-minute).

I think Virgin's continued success will all come down to how independent Bell lets them remain; Virgin had won awards for their customer service, and Bell has some of the worst customer service in the industry. If Bell lets them keep doing their thing, it could be a very profitable relationship.

[lorax1284 Posted Jul 28th 2009 10:41AM]

Solo Mobile fails because it is too expensive. Virgin Mobile succeeds because it has the best rates in the country (200 minutes, voice mail, caller ID, $20 per month + tax (no 911 or SAF)? If Solo offered those rates, it would be a success.

There is no brand loyalty: network loyalty, possibly (coverage in your 'home' area is important!) but I couldn't care less what the name on the SIM card or whatever is: I just want decent service at a fair price. If anything Virgin Mobile Canada is proving by how much all the other carriers in Canada are OVER CHARGING. Period. If Virgin Mobile can afford to offer the above plan in Canada, so can Bell, but they don't want to.

So, I fear VMobile's days (and that great rate) in Canada are numbered.

[zachavm Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:11AM]

Um.... With what money? Isn't Sprint supposed to be majorly in the red?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 10:10AM]

It was an all STOCK deal so all they did was give Virgin Mobile some of the companies shares adding up to 483M ... and that is not that big of a deal because the market capital of Sprint as of right now is 12B

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:18AM]

that really stinks, VM was a much better deal than Boost. all the other national prepaid deals are crap.

[Cpt0bvius Posted Jul 28th 2009 11:45PM]

What part does SK Telecom play in this? When Virgin Mobile bought out Helio, SK Telecom was put on the board. Since the rumor back when of a possible SK buyout of Sprint, I'd love to see some influence from them, maybe see some great handsets come to Sprint. But more than likely that won't happen.

[htd Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:31AM]

there are many prepaid services, not just 'one of the few boutique prepaid operations still... er, operating'

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:33AM]

AHHH, the yellow just killed my eyes.... Please tone it down for the sake of those not yet scarred.

[roxics Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:47AM]

What problems? Why do people complain about Sprint so much? I've had nothing but great reception and great customer service for the last three years.

[Xoy Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:53AM]

Now Att, Verizon or T Mobile needs to buy Tracfone and we will be done with the mvno's

[superstar Posted Jul 28th 2009 11:46PM]

Verizon could do nothing with Tracfone, it's a crappy CDMA network and Tracfone uses GSM

[Xoy Posted Aug 1st 2009 4:03PM]

@ Superstar

Tracfone uses CDMA & GSM dumbass

[TrueEddie Posted Jul 28th 2009 10:25AM]

Yep, I just switched from Sprint a month ago and it wasn't because of the service. Their service was awesome, especially their data. Even the customer service was good, they've really improved as of recent.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 10:27AM]

As a Helio customer with the $99 all I can eat plan I wonder if this means I'll be able to ditch my Ocean for a Palm Pre?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 11:35AM]

God, I hope so. I'm in the same boat as you. Plus, I have my wife complaining about the terrible keypad on the Fin. She wants a Lotus.

[letstakeawalk Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:31PM]

I love my Drift, but I was starting to get a little tired and jealous waiting for some new phones; the Ocean 2 was a bit of a let down...

What will happen to us Helions?

[trunksy Posted Jul 28th 2009 2:10PM]

If Virgin Mobile is being paired up with Boost Mobile, what's happening with us Helions?

Ditto on the Pre as long as the build quality increases on those things. The Ocean 2 crashing even more often than the Fin was a big let down. At least the original Ocean was solid as a rock in terms of stability.

[smith2sc Posted Jul 28th 2009 2:48PM]

haha you shoulda already done this man...looks like switchin to sprint was the right choice after all...not that it was a tough one after helio fell off the wagon

[minceyfresh Posted Jul 29th 2009 6:02PM]

I REALLY hope that the entire buyout will somehow ultimately result in Sprint commissioning Sanyo or Kyocera to manufacture some kinda webOS-powered super keitai for Helio or something...

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 10:34AM]

I hope they don't change anything. VM is the best deal for those that don't need a lot of minutes or text messages. I pay $60/year to keep my cell phone plan. Both of my parents are also on the $60/year plan. I sit at a desk all day so I don't need to make a lot of mobile calls. I only use it while I'm not at work. I use maybe 10 minutes/month.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:40PM]

I'm with you here. As a low usage customer I'm praying they don't change anything. Would maybe like a few nicer phones to choose from though....that wouldn't hurt.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 10:40AM]

If somehow this brings the Boost $50 Unlimited plan to the Sprint CDMA network (even if handcuffed to 2.5g) then I'd call this a pro-consumer acquisition. There would have to be some kind of differentiation from the Sprint $99 Everything plan...maybe 2.5g vs. 3g along with phone selection is enough... but some form of advertised $50 Unlimited CDMA with a selection of currently available feature-phones ($50 Boost UNLMTD is not advertised and the phones are no longer available) would be a major win for consumers.

[Xenoterranos Posted Jul 28th 2009 10:45AM]

Where did Sprint get money?

[offdiskoolaid Posted Jul 28th 2009 10:51AM]

That is great for them, but that yellow engadget decicded to put into the virgin mobile logo can give someone a seizure...

[Toneglaso Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:01PM]

So are they gonna enable calls from Virgin to Boost and Sprint phones as mobile 2 mobile? That'd be a plus. My whole family is on Virgin Mobile phones while I'm on Sprint.

[joseftor Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:11PM]

I've been incredibly happy with Sprint and what they've been doing. For a while I complained about almost everything but now we have cool new phones either released or coming soon (Palm Pre, Tour, and Andriod), the price of their service is very respectable, a service that is fighting for customers with great ads almost everywhere, and now is expanding their network.

Cheers to Sprint! Stick up for Sprint, without them we'd be left with primarily two mega wireless providers and a couple smaller ones.

-Joe

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:11PM]

Shouldn't Sprint be spending their money improving their network and retaining customers and not buying anyone?