Softbank in Advanced Talks to Acquire Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel Corp. hopes a majority investment by Japan's Softbank will help resolve Sprint's debt issues and provide liquidity to finance additional acquisitions in the U.S. mobile market. The deal could flounder if issues related to Clearwire are not resolved, though, as Softbank appears to want control of Clearwire as well.

And there are the regulatory clearances to sort through as well. Despite regulator concern that the U.S. mobile market already is overly concentrated, it is about to become more concentrated, albeit mostly as relates to the shares of market held by T-Mobile USA, which gobbled up MetroPCS, and possibly now a Sprint "sale" to Softbank. 

The big question is whether regulators would eventually allow Sprint and T-Mobile USA to be merged. Some think the concentration analysis used by the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission would prohibit even a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile USA, even though that would create a number-three supplier with nearly equivalent subscriber share. 

Many would argue that three carriers is a sustainable number of leading carriers in the U.S. market, and have argued that for years. An analysis by economists at the Phoenix Center argues that the effective use of any available amount of spectrum is more efficient, for example, when there are fewer providers.