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FRANKFURT — Deutsche Telekom AG is considering a bid for Sprint Nextel Corp., according to a media report Monday.
Bonn-based Deutsche Telekom did not immediately comment on the report in The Wall Street Journal. Were it to make such a deal, it would catapult its T-Mobile wireless unit to the top spot in the U.S. market.
Sprint Nextel spokeswoman Leigh Horner said the company had no comment. Shares of Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint Nextel were up 34 cents, or 4.3 percent, to $8.23 in afternoon trading.
In its report, The Wall Street Journal said deliberations were at "a preliminary stage and management may very well turn away," according to the people it quoted.
Any bid, the paper's sources said, "could still be weeks, or even months away."
Sprint Nextel is the third-biggest provider of cell phone services in the U.S. and has a market capitalization of approximately $22 billion. AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless are the top two U.S. providers.
T-Mobile is No. 4 in the U.S. market, but the unit has proved key to Deutsche Telekom, given that just slightly more than 50 percent of its annual sales now comes from markets outside of Germany, its home base. Last year, the company posted sales of 65.2 billion euros ($100.8 billion) worldwide on 19.3 billion euros in operating profit.
In 2007, T-Mobile's sales rose to 19.3 billion euros ($29.8 billion) compared with 17.1 billion euros in 2006. It wrapped up its $1.6 billion deal to buy SunCom Wireless Holdings Inc. in February.
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