Google might buy Sprint

NASCAR might have to change its name to the Google Cup Series before long. We knew there would be a good deal of debris from the news last week that Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. had ended talks to form a WiMax joint venture. But the speculation that this could spur Google Inc. to bid for Sprint Nextel is a surprise. Floating the possibility of such deal, TMCnet over the weekend said that the transaction, while risky, would accelerate the search giant's push into mobile content by giving it a big wireless network to play with. Still, a deal is highly unlikely. Absorbing a troubled company like Sprint Nextel would be an exceedingly dangerous way to acquire a wireless network. Om Malik of GigaOm outlines a possible scenario in which Sprint Nextel would spin out its WiMax operations and raise funding from Google and others, but he, too, thinks the deal is unlikely.