Sprint Corp, the third largest long-distance carrier in the US, says it is not looking for a merger partner despite the growing trend the current acquisition fever in the telecoms market. With both MCI Communications Corp and AT&T Corp – the one and two long distance carriers in the US – already turning to mergers to expand into the local market, Sprint looks increasingly likely to follow their lead. In addition, on Saturday both France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom surrendered their two-year disapproval right” to veto any potential Sprint divestiture or merger. We’re not looking for offers. We don’t perceive we need some big merger. We believe we do have the capabilities to be successful going forward, so that’s where we’re focusing our energy as opposed to looking for some large partner to compensate for some disability we don’t have,” Sprint president and chief operating officer Ronald LeMay told Reuters. Sprint, which will announce its end of year figures later today, says it will continue to focus on expanding its Global One alliance with Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom. Sprint said it would not give details of the financial performance of the troubled Global One alliance until it reports its own figures but did admit that there were some management problems that had to be solved.
