(InfoWorld Daily via NewsEdge) South Korea's SK Telecom denied a local newspaper report that it is preparing a bid for Sprint Nextel.
'It's a groundless rumor,' said Im Igsoon an official of the company's investor relations department.
Earlier, the Korean Economic Daily reported that SK Telecom has been talking with several global equity funds this year about funding a takeover of the US carrier.
SK Telecom is South Korea's leading mobile carrier and holds more than half of the country's cellular market of about 40 million subscribers.
Most of SK Telecom's customers are on its CDMA network although it is currently launching a nationwide network based on the competing W-CDMA technology.
Sprint Nextel uses a combination of CDMA and a proprietary network technology called iDEN.
In January 2005 SK Telecom partnered with Internet service provider Earthlink to launch a mobile virtual network operator called Helio.
The carrier hasn't performed to expectations and continues to lose money. It's current goal is to attract 250,000 subscribers by the end of the year and 3.3 million by the end of 2009.
SK Telecom has also targeted China and Vietnam with overseas investment. Last year it spent about $1 billion on bonds in China Unicom, China's No. 2 cellular carrier.
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