When Sprint Nextel and Clearwire announced Nov. 9 that they were abandoning their WiMax partnership, many people speculated that Clearwire might pick up with Google. After all, the search vendor has demonstrated quite the wireless itch of late, with its mobile social networking purchases and Android platform.
But by the time the weekend rolled around, the rumors bubbled over, the blogosphere lost its head and some industry watchers claimed Google could go for Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. wireless network carrier with a $45 billion market capitalization. A Google acquisition of Sprint could be disastrous for a company that has worked so hard to build up its search and online advertising business, according to analysts.