Virgin Mobile USA is all set to get hold of the US mobile arm of South Korea’s SK telecom, reported the Financial Times. Both Virgin Mobile and Helio the - US mobile operation owned by SK are struggling with their business and the merger will help in their resurrection.

Even though SK has declined to comment, a source, aware of the matter was quoted saying a deal was agreed in principle and an announcement could be made by this week.

Both Helio and Virgin want to target youth and have been losing money. Last year, Helio lost more than $ 90 million a quarter and has its subscribership almost stagnant since December. SK hold 69% shares in Helio and Earthlink hold 29%. Virgin Mobile, partly owned by Richard Branson's Virgin (VA.UL) and Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N), and with subscribers numbering more than five million customers is battling the stagnated growth amid the U.S economic slowdon.

Helio offers mobile access to social networking site MySpace, while Virgin provides access to Facebook and Xanga.com. The combination of the two will attract their target segment, youth.

The FT said SK Telecom has agreed to invest a nominal sum in Virgin USA, and the agreement would see Helio as a part of Virgin mobile, which means the Virgin brand will be retained. X

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Financial Times