SK Telecom drops plan for Sprint tieup -media
SEOUL, Nov 13 (Reuters) - South Korea's SK Telecom Co (017670.KS) has dropped a plan to partner with No. 3 U.S. mobile service Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) to either form a joint venture or collaborate on business projects, Yonhap News reported on Thursday.
SK Telecom, South Korea's top mobile operator, was previously rumoured to be ready to buy or invest in Sprint. Sprint rejected a $5 billion investment by SK and a group of private equity firms in 2007, sources said, but similar rumours kept resurfacing.
In July, sources said the two companies were in talks about collaborating on technology.
"We have considered several business tie-ups with Sprint Nextel, including a joint venture," South Korea's Yonhap quoted an unanmed SK official as saying. "But the merit of business cooperation has disappeared as market conditions at home and abroad have weakened and as the economic downturn is set to linger."
An SK Telecom spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
The company said last month in an investor conference that it would be careful with overseas expansion taking into account the changing business environment.
SK is looking to overseas markets as expansion becomes more difficult at home, where more than 90 percent of the population already has a mobile phone.
Sprint Nextel posted its fourth straight quarterly loss earlier this month as customers fled to rival services amid service problems, weak marketing and an economic downturn that hurt low-credit subscribers. (Reporting by Rhee So-eui; editing by Jonathan Hopfner)
