The shares of Sprint Nextel Corp., the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, rose as much as 13 % in the wake of reports that Deutsche Telekom AG is analyzing a possible takeover offer.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the combination could make the German company's T-Mobile USA unit the biggest wireless company in the United States.

Sprint's share price was having a dip when the reports associated with the Deutsche Telekom AG came out. The reports boosted the Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint, which has a market value of more than $22 billion.

Sprint rose as much as $1.05 to the equivalent of $8.94 in Germany from the close of $7.89 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading on May 2. The stock traded at $8.66 as of 9:50 a.m. Frankfurt time. Deutsche Telekom declined as much as 21 cents, or 1.8 percent, to 11.58 euros and traded at 11.69 euros as of 9:52 a.m.

Sprint is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the US, with 53.8 million subscribers. Sprint posted a $29.6 billion loss in 2007 as customers moved to larger rivals AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless.