Shares in US prepaid operator Leap Wireless rose 7.5 percent on the Nasdaq yesterday amid renewed speculation that it could be acquired, reports Bloomberg. Analysts said that likely candidates for a takeover could be the other main US prepaid operator, MetroPCS, or AT&T, two firms that have previously been linked with an acquisition of Leap. “The increased competitive landscape that’s been hurting both stocks, PCS and Leap, likely does accelerate a merger between the two,” said Michael Nelson, an analyst at Soleil Securities/Nelson Alpha Research. In a separate Reuters report, Leap spokesman Greg Lund declined to comment on the company’s share price move or the AT&T rumour but was more upbeat on the long-standing possibility of a tie-up with MetroPCS. “We have said that some sort of strategic collaboration with MetroPCS makes sense. We’ve not changed our view on that,” he said.

According to a recent edition of Wireless Intelligence’s Snapshot, connections growth at both MetroPCS and Leap Wireless were below expectations in 2Q09 due in part to increased competition from Sprint’s prepaid subsidiary, Boost Mobile, which took a 40.5 percent share of US prepaid net additions in the quarter. Leap added 203,000 net customers in the quarter (down from 493,000 in 1Q09), while MetroPCS gained 206,000 (down from 684,000). The two operators took a combined 22 percent share of prepaid net additions in 2Q09, according to Wireless Intelligence figures, down from 37 percent in the previous quarter. An earlier attempt to merge the two operators in 2007 failed after Leap rejected a buyout proposal from MetroPCS.