By Monica Alleven
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Sprint Nextel’s proposed $483 million acquisition of Virgin Mobile USA moved a step closer to reality after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) gave its nod of approval to the transaction.
Sprint already owns 13.1 percent of Virgin Mobile, which has been using Sprint’s network as part of its MVNO model.
The FCC still needs to review the proposed acquisition, which was announced July 28.
Virgin Mobile reported a second-quarter net loss of 269,239 customers, but its profit soared to $17.2 million compared to last year’s $3.5 million.
As for Sprint, its Boost Mobile prepaid division’s net adds totaled about 777,000 in the second quarter, representing the highest reported level of prepaid performance by any U.S. carrier in three years.