While declining comment on takeover speculation swirling around his company, Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) Chief Executive Dan Hesse noted that industry consolidation likely would be more difficult under President Barack Obama's administration.

The new administration likely would seek more conditions and more closely scrutinize potential combinations, Hesse said during an analyst conference on Thursday.

Sprint reportedly was eyed as a takeover candidate by Deutsche Telekom AG (DT). Both companies have declined to comment on the reports.

Hesse said investors shouldn't be so quick to jump at the prospect of mergers and acquisitions within the industry.

"I don't know if it'll happen or if it's necessary," he said on the sidelines of the event. "The industry is healthy and growing."

Hesse noted that it was too early to call any inflection point on the state of the economy, but like his fellow telecom peers, he noted the stabilization.

"We're hopeful of an uptick, but we haven't seen it yet," he said.

Hesse expressed his commitment to Sprint's various businesses. The company will eventually make investments in its pre-paid business once it hits capacity, he said. That could include Boost Mobile, which runs on its Nextel network, as well as the pending acquisition of Virgin Mobile USA Inc (VM).

It's unclear, however, which network Sprint would eventually invest in, he said.

On the company's fourth-generation network aspirations, Hesse said that Sprint is willing to step up and fund Clearwire Corp.'s (CLWR) roughly $2 billion funding gap. Clearwire Chief Executive Bill Morrow earlier told Dow Jones Newswires that he expects to have the funding identified by the end of the year.

Sprint intends to maintain its majority ownership of Clearwire, Hesse said.

On the issue of handset exclusivity, Hesse said the practice is good for competition, but he expects more scrutiny over it. He added he sees limits on the timeframe for the exclusivity period.

-By Roger Cheng, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2153; roger.cheng@dowjones.com