PE firms mull Sprint acquisition

While talks of a PE bubble may take the air out of this report, The Deal claims PE firms are getting together to mull a takeover bid for Sprint Nextel, which has an enterprise value of about $75 billion. Since that's not including the takeover premium, most in the industry believe it to be a cost-prohibitive move despite the fact that Sprint is trading between 5 and 5.5 times Ebitda "with multiples more akin to a phone company than a wireless carrier," as The Deal notes. The carrier has drawn interest even though the price tag is much higher than the landmark $33 billion pending buyout of Nashville hospital company HCA.

For more on the rumored PE takeover of Sprint:
- see this article from The Deal