Nothing against Softbank but I'd hate to see one of the few "large" American telecoms get bought out by a foreign country. Most importantly, I don't see how this benefits me as a consumer. For starters, Sprint is not in danger of closing shop. They still have plenty of cash to stay afloat for quite some time. Furthermore, Sprint is spending a ton of cash on their LTE network right now, and that's definitely hurting their bottom line, but that won't last forever and eventually that huge spending bill will shrink. Now, I don't have a lot of love for Dan Hesse, but I think he has a clear vision of what he wants Sprint to be, which is a low-cost alternative to Verizon/AT&T. Remove Hesse and I think that vision falls apart. I don't think Softbank would make the financial sacrifices that Hesse has. Any major company, whether it's Softbank or someone else, would want to turn Sprint into the next big teleco. In turn Sprint would get better phones and more service towers, but I think that would be paid for through higher prices and the loss of services that Hesse champions (for example, unlimited data). This deal may be great for investors but I don't see this helping me without Hesse calling the shots.