Crazy Rumors: Google buying Sprint?
Wow. I wasn’t expecting to see this rolling up in my Google Reader, but here’s some dude saying that he’s hearing some words about Google mulling over a Sprint Nextel takeover. It doesn’t seem overly likely to me.
The funny thing, though? I kinda think it’s an interesting idea. Google wants to get onto handsets and having a carrier makes that a lot easier. Sprint’s not doing so well and something utterly crazy could shake up something - imagine moving into a free ad supported revenue model for phones. Or something. Google would certainly love to get in on a big WiMax rollout especially given the sort of paradigm busting revenue model that Sprint was thinking about. That could potentially mean a ton of broadband connected devices that everyone was carrying around - that certainly would appeal to the big G.
It’d give Google some more leverage to actually get something done with their Open Handset Alliance, rather than relying on the carriers to decide all of a sudden to crave openness and love for their customers. Having an in like that would certainly help get the ball rolling.
This seems almost certainly to be fantasyland to me, but it is a particular interesting land to think about. Google acquiring Sprint? Who knows?
