After Mayer Brown Scores Key Litigation Wins for iPCS, Sprint Agrees to Buy the Company
By Andrew Longstreth
October 19, 2009
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Sprint Nextel waved a big old white flag Monday when it announced that it had agreed to buy its wireless affiliate iPCS. The deal, reportedly worth $831 million, is the result of long-running litigation between the two companies, and follows a few key wins by iPCS's lawyers at Mayer Brown. As part of the purchase agreement, Sprint and iPCS will ask the courts to stay all pending cases between them. The litigation dates back to 2005, when Sprint bought Nextel. IPCS alleged that Sprint had violated an affiliate agreement that precluded the carrier from deploying a wireless operator in iPCS's territory. After a 2006 bench trial in Illinois state court, iPCS counsel John Touhy and Michael Forde won a ruling ordering Sprint to divest its assets in iPCS territory. The decision was upheld by both an appellate court and the supreme court of Illinois. As the deadline for the asset divestiture loomed, Sprint decided to buy iPCS instead.
King & Spalding, which represented Sprint in the deal with iPCS, also worked on the litigation in Illinois. We left a message with K&S partner Daniel King but didn't hear back.
