The Virgin Mobile, which is the US wireless unit of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, is said to be busy in merger talks with SK Telecom, the top mobile operator of South Korea. On Wednesday 14 May, this news was confirmed by Virgin Mobile USA Inc which said that it was engaged in preliminary talks with the South Korean telecom giant.

 

If this deal comes through, then the combined entity will offer an array of mobile data applications targeted mainly towards the youth market. The confirmation statement from the Virgin Mobile Company was short and formal and it read that the company is in ‘preliminary discussions with SK Telecom to explore possible strategic opportunities.’

 

The statement, however, also went on to add that the deliberations between the two companies are in the initial state and that there is no guarantee that the deal will actually materialize. The Virgin Mobile went public previous October and has built up a customer base of five million in the US market. SK Telecom, on the other hand, boasts of the largest customer base of 22 million in South Korea.