The sale of US MVNO FreedomPop, being managed by The Raine Group, could occur before the end of May.
In an interview with FierceWireless FreedomPop’s CEO, Stephen Stokols, said that his company was “further down the process with a party of our…
The sale of US MVNO FreedomPop, being managed by The Raine Group, could occur before the end of May.
In an interview with FierceWireless FreedomPop’s CEO, Stephen Stokols, said that his company was “further down the process with a party of our choice” and hoped for a resolution within four to six weeks.
In tandem with the sale talks FreedomPop is also lining up a substantial funding round with venture capital firms, in case the virtual operator is not bought, Stokols said.
The Los Angeles-based mobile provider has been linked with a sale since last year and would fetch at least US$100m, a person familiar with the matter told TelecomFinance last month.
FreedomPop launched in 2012 and operates on a freemium model, giving its subscribers a significant amount of services for free before they have to pay. It now has 500,000 customers and it projects this to hit one million before the end of the year. It also plans to launch in a major European market during Q2.
The MVNO is backed by Skype founder Niklas Zennstom, as well as Mangrove Capital and DCM.
Last November Sprint Corp, on whose network FreedomPop piggy-backs, was reportedly interested in buying the virtual carrier, but a takeover did not materialise. In March Bloomberg reported that potential buyers now included an internet company and new entrants into wireless.
