Don’t look for Tracfone to buy Leap

It looks like Leap Wireless is ready to sell. How far talks get is anyone’s guess, but all the talk this week centered on Leap seeking a buyer. While MetroPCS makes the most sense to most people, we’ve heard just about every cellular carrier other than Verizon connected to them. One carrier we haven’t heard much from this time around, but which has been mentioned as a potential buyer in the past is America Movil, parent company of Tracfone. The company doesn’t own any infrastructure in the U.S., though, so it would be quite a change in strategy to acquire some.

It seems like Movil is fine right where it is. They’ve said that they don’t plan to acquire any infrastructure in the U.S., at least for the time being. As an MVNO with three distinct products, they have that luxury. Perhaps if the landscape changes and the larger carriers change strategy it could become a possibility, but for now we can rule them out as a Leap buyer.

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One Response

1. mike freeman Says
   

   Tracfone NOT buying Leap? Why should they when they can just create another subdivision brand out of thin air?

   I’d focus more on a Metro merger with possibly mergers with other smaller, similar cdma regional unlimited carriers like Pocket, Blue, Frawg, etc.

   Leap waited too long and now they are hurting. Metro will get them for a lot less then what they want. And Metro will ruin Leap. But isn’t that what happens in mergers? (Sprint “merging” , murdering is more like it, with Nextel is a classic example of a mess. Sprint is STILL screwing up.)

   Look for byod on Leap to die as soon as Metro takes over except for dealer /corporate approved handsets tightly controlled by them. A lot of independent phone flashers are going to have to get another job when Metro corporate culture kills Leap’s.

   
   Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 8:00 am

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