Department of Justice on August 3, 2005. Sprint Nextel was formed on August 13, 2005, when the deal was completed. Sprint and Nextel faced opposition to the merger, mostly from regional affiliates that provided wireless services on behalf of the companies. These regional affiliates felt that the new company would hinder competition. On September 1, 2005, Sprint Nextel combined plan offerings of its Sprint and Nextel brands to bring uniformity across the company's offerings. Nextel has licensed its identity to NII Holdings, Inc., of which Sprint Nextel owned 18%. NII has used the Nextel brand to set up networks in many Latin American countries. Following Sprint's purchase of Nextel, Nextel sold all of its investment in NII Holdings. The integration process was difficult due to disparate network technologies. Sprint tried to address this with the advent of PowerSource phones. These phones routed voice call and data services over Sprint's PCS spectrum while maintaining DirectConnect services over 800 MHz spectrum. However, this was not sufficient in coverage, due to the inability to roam on a non-PCS spectrum. Top Nextel Executives began leaving the company immediately after the merger closed. Tim Donahue, the Nextel CEO, stayed on as executive chairman, but ceded decision-making authority to Gary D. Forsee. Tom Kelly, COO of Nextel, took an interim staff position as Chief Strategy Officer. Two years after the merger, only a few key Nextel executives remained, with many former Nextel middle- and upper-level managers having left, citing reasons including the unbridgeable cultural difference between the two companies. In 2006, Sprint spun off its local telephone operations, including the former United Telephone companies and Centel, as Embarq. Sprint's acquisition of Nextel was a disaster from a fiscal standpoint in 2008, the company wrote down $29.7 billion of the $36 billion sum it had paid for Nextel in 2005, wiping out 80 percent of the value of Nextel at the time it had been acquired. The write down reflected the depreciation in Nextel's goodwill since the date of acquisition. Affiliate acquisitions and settlements Prior to their merger, Sprint and Nextel were dependent on a network of affiliated companies. Following the announcement of the merger agreement, some of these affiliates came forward with strong opposition to the Sprint-Nextel merger on the grounds that the merged company might violate existing agreements or significantly undercut earnings to these affiliates. In order for Sprint Nextel to allay some of this