Sprint was reportedly near $8 billion MetroPCS purchase before board rejected the deal

Well, this is interesting. According to CNBC's David Faber, Sprint's board has rejected a deal that would've seen the carrier acquiring MetroPCS for a cool $8 billion. Negotiations had reportedly going on for months and the purchase is said to have even received Sprint CEO Dan Hesse's approval. What's more, the deal was allegedly just hours away from being made public before the Now Network's board put the brakes on. It's not yet clear why the deal was stopped, but Faber says that regulatory concerns were not the reason for the decision.

So why was Sprint interested in MetroPCS? That's not yet clear, but it's possible that Hesse and Co. were looking for some help with their LTE rollout. We may never find out the intricacies of the deal or why the Sprint board pulled the plug on it, but it's definitely strange that the board members decided to reject the deal at the last minute, even though the company's own CEO had given the purchase the A-OK. We'll be sure to update you with any other details on the rumored deal as they come out. What do you all make of this news? Do you think it would've been a good move for Sprint to acquire MetroPCS?

Via The Verge, @CNBC (1), (2), @DavidFaberCNBC