It’s finally official. After months and months of ongoing rumors, SKT/Helio and Virgin have finally come to a conclusion of what they are going to do. Virgin Mobile USA will be entering into the postpaid (contractual) market via Helio, and the Helio name will be turned in to Virgin Mobile. Read Virgin’s press release here, or Helio’s statement here.

I’d also like to clear up some common misconceptions really quick. Helio will not become prepaid. And the Ocean 2 is still on track for release.

Since there are a lot of numbers and tech talk in the press release, we think it’d be easier to just list it all out in a nice and easy to read list:

Virgin Mobile will be able to negotiate lower rates from Sprint, which will then hopefully be passed on to us.

“Helio” now has exposure and more growth opportunity to the 4.6 million users of Virgin Mobile, along with new distribution channels that Virgin already has deals with.

Our exclusive applications will remain, such as Youtube Mobile, Myspace etc… We expect that nothing will really change on this part (all games and apps will still be here)

SKTelecom will own 17% of Virgin Mobile USA, which equals two spots in the Board of Directors. So even while Helio, the name, will be no more, SKT will still have some direction and authority.

SKTelecom will be providing an additional $35 million into Virgin Mobile. Virgin Group will put down $25 million.

They plan to keep using Helio’s awesome offerings, and adding even more. Essentially, this is Virgin Mobile’s high-end postpaid service now, with the prepaid being low-end/mid-range.

Due to a lot of the proprietary software that Helio uses for it’s handsets, we don’t expect Virgin Mobile to suddenly change everything we know, as it would be a big ol’ pain for them and for us.

In addition to the press release, we are also told that Helio House (the corporate offices of Helio) will remain, albeit slightly slimmed down, but products, services, and other teams will still be there.

Jin Woo So, who is the President of Global Business at SKTelecom commented, “This transaction and our long-term, strategic investment in Virgin Mobile USA continue SKT’s strong momentum in the U.S. market, and will allow Helio and Virgin Mobile USA to realize significant synergies and strategic benefits. Virgin Mobile’s scale, strong brand power and expertise in prepaid with Helio’s leading technology, innovative services and experience in postpaid will together form a powerful new platform that will bring new value and flexibility to customers. We believe the strength of the business model will serve to enhance the value we built at Helio, and we look forward to a long-term partnership.”

Helio has also posted up their own statement, which covers just a few topics.

Everyone’s services will still work as intended, there won’t be any interruption.

New members can still sign up for Helio

The Helio brand will unfortunately eventually be phased out.

This deal does NOT affect your contract, meaning, if you leave, you still pay the $175 ETF

What does all this mean? Basically, our bill may now come from Virgin Mobile USA, and future handsets may have the Virgin Mobile logo, but I wouldn’t expect anything to go downhill from here. Since Virgin Mobile has so many customers, the discounts they will receive on handsets and airtime will be great. You can say goodbye to the little blue flame if you want, but I think the only thing we will be missing is that, the logo and the name Helio. It’s a sad day for everyone, especially those whose jobs were cut (my condolences, we’ve met a lot of awesome people at Helio!), but here’s to hoping that it’s just going to get better from here on out. If need be, we’ve made a difference before, we can do it again.

Virgin Mobile’s press release

Over at MocoNews, word is that Helio and Virgin Mobile may be in talks of a merger. While it is safe to say this could be just a rumor as neither company has given an official stance on it, it would be pretty interesting if anything did come of it.

We’ll just have to wait this one out until we get some word from either company.

(Greg says: We’ve asked the people that might be in the know about this. While no one is willing to spill any details, no one is making any effort to deny it. As Matt Hickey from Crunchgear points out, the two companies could each bring something to the table that the other lacks: Virgin already has floorspace in a ton of outlets, but lacks any sort of high end offerings. Helio has far less retail penetration, but can bring high end products and services to the table. If it does go down, I just hope Helio keeps its own name; VirginMobileocity sounds whack.)