NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Oct. 19, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its rating on Overland Park, Kan.-based wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. (BB/Negative/--) is not affected by the company's definitive agreement to acquire iPCS Inc. The deal is valued at $831 million, including $405 million of iPCS's net debt and the cash tender of $426 million for iPCS's common stock. We expect the transaction to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2009 or in early 2010. We do not expect the acquisition of iPCS to materially change Sprint Nextel's financial risk profile, as operating lease adjusted leverage will remain around 4.3x on a pro forma basis and the purchase will be net free cash flow
