Before the Thanksgiving holiday, SK Telecom and private equity firm Providence Equity Partners offered to invest $5 billion in Sprint. The terms of the proposal would have had former Nextel CEO Tim Donahue return to helm the company. Donahue planned to bring in an entirely new management team. Sprint turned down the offer without discussing the proposal with SK Telecom or Providence Equity Partners. Sprint and SK Telecom have several things in common. Helio, the L.A.-based MVNO, is a joint venture between the two companies. SK Telecom is also in the middle of deploying a WiMAX network of its own, just as Sprint is doing.

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