Sprint walks away from a $5 billion investment

How often does a company walk away from a $5 billion investment without even meeting with the people who made the offer? Sprint's (NYSE:S) board appears to have done that a week or so ago.

A team of Korean cell company SK Telecom and Providence Equity Partners suggested a $5 billion investment in a convertible security that would have set a price well above the current share value of just over $15. Not a bad deal. According to The Wall Street Journal, "the group said in a bid letter to the board that it was prepared to invest $5 billion or 'potentially substantially more' in the form of securities convertible into equity after some period of time at a stock price 20% higher than Sprint's share price."

But there was one catch. The group wanted former Sprint chairman Tim Donahue to run the company. Donahue was CEO of Nextel before it merged with Sprint.

The Sprint board did the right thing. There is no reason to believe that the company would not be able to raise capital elsewhere, although the terms may not be as good. It might even get a strategic investment from a large cable company that would want to market wireless products along with broadband and TV. But even if the investment is attractive, Donahue is an architect of one of the largest merger train wrecks of the last decade, a debacle that cost the Sprint CEO his job just two months ago.

Getting one of the villains to come back and play sheriff would send a very bad message to investors. They have already been hurt enough by poor earnings and a falling stock price.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.